M^;W4A>1&  ; 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


. 


<§) 


<§ 


poetic  Romance. 


IN  EIGHT  CHNTOS. 


BY  H.  M.  DuBosE. 


1  Then,  in  a  moment,  she  put  forth  the  charm 
Of  woven  paces  and  of  weaving  hands; 
And  in  the  hollow  of  the  oak  he  lay  as  dead, 
And  lost  to  life  and  use  and  name  and  fame. 


1 1  hold  it  truth  with  him  who  sings 
To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones, 
That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 

Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 

— Baron  Tennyson. 


PRINTED  FOR  THE  AUTHOR. 
PUBLISHING    HOUSE   OF   THE    METHODIST    EPISCOPAL   CHURCH,   SOUTH. 

J.  D.  BARBEE,  AGENT,  NASHVILLE,  TENN. 

1889. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1889, 

BY  H.  M.  DuBoSE, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFATORY. 


"  Poetry  is  itself,  a  thing  of  God; 
He  made  His  prophets  poets." 

I  KNOW  not  whether  or  not  this  message  of  mine  be  worthy  the 
noble  appellation  of  poetry.  It  rests  with  my  countrymen  to 
judge  of  its  title  to  a  place  in  the  book  of  inspired  song.  But 
this  I  say,  God  taught  it  me.  Ten  years  and  more  ago,  amid 
humble  labors  in  a  village  beside  the  Father  of  Waters,  and  when 
the  shadow  of  the  pestilence  that  walketh  in  darkness  was  but 
newly  lifted  from  the  hearts  of  a  smitten  people,  my  hand  was 
first  set  to  the  task.  The  resonant  voices  of  the  onward  tides 
taught  me  the  numbers  of  a  hitherto  untried  scale ;  a  peaceful 
memory,  brought  from  my  childhood  home  in  the  pwie-sentried 
hills,  kept  fresh  in  my  soul  the  love  of  nature's  reverberant  mel 
odies  and  her  awful  hushes  of  sacred  melancholy;  and  the  sad, 
sad  sjory  of  unmerited  bitterness  that  blighted  a  life  more  beau 
tiful  than  "the  fringed  lilies"  was  the  inspiration  of  this  my 
lowly  verse.  H.  M.  DiBosE. 

Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  October,  1889. 


762973 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  conscience  of  Christendom  is  becoming  more  and  more 
sensible  of  the  appalling  evils  that  flow  from  the  use  of  intoxi 
cating  liquors.  Step  by  step,  advancing  in  every  legitimate  path 
that  is  opened  up,  the  enlightened  judgment  of  the  Christian 
world  is  taking  a  forward  position,  and  demanding  the  rescue  of 
fallen  humanity  from  exposure  to  the  unspeakable  horrors  of  the 
drunkard's  career. 

Every  contribution  to  this  much-desired  result  is  a  subject  of 
welcome  and  congratulation  to  society.  Poets  have  sung  the 
pleasures  of  the  wine-cup;  why  should  not  the  genius  of  the 
poet  devote  itself  to  the  warning  of  the  exposed  and  endan 
gered,  and  to  the  reclamation  of  the  enslaved?  Can  the  inspi 
ration  of  Parnassus  be  employed  in  a  nobler  service? 

We  have  displayed  in  this  poem,  "  Rupert  Wise,"  the  fearful 
truth  that  "no  man  liveth  unto  himself,"  even  in  respect  to  those 
things  that  are  usually  esteemed  the  chartered  rights  of  personal 
liberty.  Has  any  man  the  right  to  perpetuate,  in  his  own  offspring, 
the  detestable  vice  of  drunkenness?  Has  any  man  the  right  to 
acquire  habits  that  may  eventuate  in  the  ruin  of  those  who 
become  the  legatees  of  his  errors  and  his  crimes?  The  possibility 
of  transmitting  the  taint  of  slavish  bondage  to  the  appetite  for 
drink  is  the  foundation  of  the  argument  in  "Rupert  Wise."  Thi.-; 
remorseless  spell,  weaving  an  enchantment  too  strong  for  earthly 
hopes,  ambitions,  or  obligations  to  destroy,  prepares  the  way  for 
the  darkness  of  the  eternal  night. 

At  the  moment  of  despair,  when  the  vision  of  female  loveli- 

(5) 


6  INTRODUCTION7. 

ness,  of  earthly  peace  and  quiet,  love  and  joy,  is  about  to  die 
away  in  the  fumes  of  the  bottomless  pit,  the  strong  arm  of  the 
Redeemer  of  man  reaches  down  to  the  verge  of  ruin,  and  snatches 
the  brand  from  the  eternal  burning.  The  lesson  is  one  that  should 
sink  deep  into  the  heart  of  the  reader.  There  is  no  vicious  appe 
tite  that  may  not  be  conquered  by  the  power  of  the  grace  of  God 
manifested  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  "I  can  do  all  things 
through  Christ  which  strengthened  me."  This  truth  forms  the 
sequel. 

The  poem,  as  a  work  of  art,  is  before  the  reader.  The  author 
makes  his  venture  before  the  public  unheralded  by  critics  or  by 
interested  advocates,  but  if  the  "divine  afflatus"  of  the  true 
poet  has  fallen  upon  his  spirit,  and  typed  itself  in  this  work  of  his 
pen,  the  candid  judgment  of  the  reader  will  indorse  that  of  the 
editor  of  this  volume.  We  believe  that  there  is  superior  merit 
in  this  poem,  and  the  promise  of  the  higher  work  that  is  yet 
to  be.  W.  P.  HARRISON. 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  October  18, 1889. 


PROEMfl. 

WHEN  early  morn  had  lift  its  veil 
Of  woven  mist  from  off  a  hill 
That  all  rny  sight  with  dreams  did  fill, 

Half-way  its  slope,  one  calm  and  pale 

I  saw  beneath  the  virgin  shade.  . 
Strange  garb  was  his,  but  noble  all 
His  bearing  seemed.  Swift  at  his  call 

I  moved  him  near,  and  deference  paid 

To  that  mild  air  of  worth  he  wore. 
Expectant  wonder  held  my  soul 
What  time  his  hands  unlaced  a  scroll, 

That  wizard  trace  of  genius  bore. 

Wild  joy  I  felt  when  that  his  name 

Was  breathed — no  other  than  the  bard 
Who  that  Prince  Arthur  evil  stai-red 

Had  sung  to  everlasting  fame. 

Brought  forth  from  Alma's  hidden  scrine 
That  antique  roll  of  goodly  knights 
Of  Tanaquil,  and  those  six  lights 

Of  Faery  Queen  that  ceased  to  ahine. 

"  Swear  on  this  scroll,"  he  gravely  said, 
"As  sware  Sir  Guyon  on  his  shield, 
By  castle  wall,  in  wood  or  field, 

Fierce  vengeance  on  the  Paynim  head, 

(7) 


PROEMA. 

"And  that  Acrasia,  sorceress  vile, 
Who  Modrant  and  Ainavia  slew, 
Him  with  the  cup's  enchanted  dew, 

Her  through  despair  and  sorceress'  wile. 

"Acrasia  lives  with  other  name ; 

Swear  vengeance  here,  and  move  thou  hence 
That  others  swear,  withal,  defense 

Of  faithful  love  and  manhood's  frame." 

I  sware,  and  heard  his  blessings  spoke, 
And  saw  him  fade,  like  mist,  away, 
The  whiles,  with  oaten  pipe  and  lay, 

Shepherds  the  infant  day  awoke. 


GAMO  FIRST. 


i. 

t  f  ARP  of  the  Southland  new !  that  sad  hath  slept 

[         Since  that  wild  singer,  'neath  the  whispering  leaves 

That  near  the  river  dark  their  cadence  wept, 

Awoke  his  last  and  plaintive  song ;  whose  sheaves 
Of  truth  and  garlands,  gleaned  through  morns  and  eves 

Of  sorrow  filled  with  tread  of  coming  death, 
He  consecrated  unto  God — as  heaves 

The  reedy  bank  to  Autumn's  earliest  breath, 

Awake,  assist  my  song  of  love  and  vanquished  death ! 

The  soul  that  breathes  this  prayer  thy  mazes  o'er 
Breathes  likewise  full  its  ardent  wish  abroad, 

E'en  to  the  utmost  limit — line  and  shore — 

Of  this  predestined  land,  made  one  since  strode 
In  hate  the  form  of  war  with  dark  inroad 

Through  sunny  vales  whose  circles  peace  had  hung 
With  clamb'ring  vines  and  graced  with  villas  bi-oad 

And  smiling  fields,  where  late,  when  morn  was  young, 

The  reaper's  harvest  lay  in  rippling  echoes  rung. 

Once  more  awake,  though  but  to  weep  anew ! 
That  voice  befits  thy  strings,  befits  whose  hand 


10  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Would  teach  thy  strings  to  throb  hope's  measures  through. 
Ah,  welladay !  that  voice  befits  the  land' 
That  mourns  her  youngest,  greatest  bard  ;  the  band 

That  walked  with  him  through  fire  to  martial  strains, 
And  pallid  hosts  that  kissed  the  brazen  wand. 

Quicken,  my  touch !  take  fire,  my  dull  refrains ! 

0  Southland  harp,  awake  with  wild,  unwonted  strains  t 

II. 
Hail,  city  fair,  throned  on  eternal  hills, 

Hard  by  the  mighty  river's  sullen  flow ! 
Far  o'er  the  morning's  gilded  mist,  that  fills 

With  tow'r  and  dome  and  shimm'ring  bow 

The  wide  expanse  thy  monarch  seat  below, 
The  weary  helmsman  hails  thee  with  delight  ; 

Or  mocks  the  gloom,  if  but  thy  beacons  glow, 
Conjuring  oft  with  fancy's  yearning  sight 
The  cheerful  glimm'rings  of  his  own  domestic  light- 

Nature's  primeval  work  thy  strength  reveals ; 
Where  now  thy  marts,  before  Itasca  rose, 

Time's  hoary  form  hath  been  and  on  thy  hills 
Left  his  memorial ;  they  knew  repose 
While  yon  fair  land  felt  aye  the  wreck  and  throes. 

The  ruin  and  the  waste,  of  change,  nor  smiles 
Perennial  now.     Full  oft  in  rude  embrace 

The  am'rous  flood  of  virgin  life  despoils, 
Destroys  each  fond  adornment  of  her  face, 
With  recompense  of  fleecy  wealth  and  vintage  place. 


RUPERT  WISE!  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  11 

O'er  nature's  granite  ramparts  rise  thy  fanes, 

Pointing  in  prophecy  the  multitudes 
That  move  with  listless  mien  along  thy  lanes 

To  man's  last  end ;  or  when  the  storm-king  broods 

In  ether's  deep  and  vaulted  solitudes, 
Or  rears  his  form  upon  the  lightning's  path 

And  thunder  th'  elemental  strife  preludes, 
Invite  his  bolts  and  kiss  away  his  wrath  ; 
For  chaos  knows  his  realm  and  ruin  knows  his  path. 

Red  war  around  thy  gates  hath  flamed,  and  Mars 

Hath  looked  with  eyes  of  fiery  curse  on  thee, 
While  fates  malign  and  tracts  of  evil  stars 

Have  marked  with  lurid  fears  thy  destiny ; 

Yet  queenly  still  thou  sittest,  clothed  and  free ; 
The  past  thou  hast  in  tears,  the  future's  page 

Thou  boldest  fair  for  peaceful  history ; 
Though  writ  with  golden  pen  for  golden  age, 
Thou  still  wilt  hold  thy  past,  with  good  or  ill  presage. 

To  thee  relates  my  song  of  various  key ; 

To  thee  pertains  my  tale,  in  thee  'twas  wrought. 
I  own  from  thee  the  sense  of  mystery, 

And  power  of  strong  desire,  in  youth  begot; 

To  thee  anon  turns  mcm'ry  ever  fraught 
With  old-time  visions  of  that  free,  grand  tide, 

Moving  majestic  tow'rd  its  ocean  lot, 
Life  symboling  through  all  its  glinting  pride ; 
And  thy  green  hills  around,  though  winter  all  beside. 


12  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Thine  are  these  garlands,  gathered  most  where  wave 
The  dark-tressed  willow-trees,  and  lowly  blow 

The  daffodils  on  beauty's  early  grave  ; 

From  darksome  ways  the  tow'ring  cliffs  below, 
Where  those  red  foils,  sad  bleeding-hearts,  do  grow, 

Admixed  with  thorn-set  sprays  of  eglantine 

And  nightshade  blooms,  that  fringed  petals  show 

Through  sun-scorched  links  of  resurrection  vine, 

Whose  germs  revive  from  mold — these,  mother,  these  are 

thine ! 

III. 

Well  through  his  northern  signs  bold  Phoebus  pressed, 

Now  quitted  slowly  Virgo's  starry  breast ; 

And  Sirius,  with  dread,  unequal  sphere, 

Leading  the  Sothian  train  through  wide  career, 

Stood  in  the  Archer's  wake  till,  far  and  dim, 

He  shone  serene  on  evening's  azure  rim  ; 

But  ere  his  exit  into  nether  space 

Eed  blazed  awhile  his  ill-portending  face  ; 

AVhich  dire  menace,  explained  by  thoughtful  wight, 

Spread  terror  round  and  din  of  wild  affright ; 

Nor  this  alone  bespoke  impending  ire : 

The  planet  train  in  aug'ry  dark  conspire 

And  held  their  poised  spheres  on  evil  plane, 

What  time  the  comet  shook  his  deadly  mane 

O'er  pleasant  lands,  and  deep  resounding  far 

Came  tokens  of  the  earthquake's  hidden  war. 

But  mundane  nature  else  reflected  wide 
The  pangless  scenes  of  Eden's  nascent  pride, 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  13 

And  mocked  with  piping  sounds  in  sylvan  void 
Each  rankling  sense  that  hapless  man  annoyed ; 
Calm  slept  the  fields  where  fruitful  summer  dreamed ; 
Full  through  the  vales  a  wealth  of  sunlight  streamed  ; 
A  Sabbath  peace  the  distant  spaces  filled, 
Where  zephyr's  hand  along  the  forest  trilled 
With  sounds  that  spoke  Almighty  presence  nigh ; 
And  latticed  paths,  besprint  with  crimson  dye, 
Led  toward  the  sunset  city's  burnished  gate, 
Where  fancy  walks  and  dreams  aspiring  wait. 

Sad  contrast  held  in  that  fair  city's  life, 

Besmit  but  late  of  war  and  wasting  strife, 

Yet  since  renewed  in  every  peaceful  thought 

And,  in  a  progress  blood  and  sorrow  bought, 

Vying  with  compeers  raised  by  fortune's  hand 

To  higher  state,  the  urbarchs  of  the  land. 

No  more,  alas !  breathed  hope  where  her  tall  spires, 

Aglow  with  sunset's  wide  reflected  fires, 

O'erlooked  a  thousand  homes  to  shame  unknown, 

A  thousand  hearths  where  humble  virtue  shone, 

And  in  the  unseen  censers  of  the  heart 

The  priestess  Love  her  incense  burned  apart. 

Now  apprehension's  dread  Nemesis  walked 

Through  erstwhile  joyful  scenes,  and  brooding  stalked 

Through  crowded  ways  or  cast  in  busy  marts 

A  haunting  shade.     Compelled  by  terror's  arts, 

The  rabble  blanched  at  folly's  idle  tale, 

And  nobler  senses  owned  the  subtle  bale; 


14  RUPEBT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

A  hidden  scepter  swayed  the  fateful  hour 
As  fear  succeeding  fear  renewed  its  power, 
Nor  wisdom's  word,  nor  science'  just  disdain 
Availed  to  check  the  passions'  frenzied  reign. 

Convened  apart  by  mutual  sanction  late, 
As  oft  their  wont,  for  pleasure  and  debate, 
The  wise  physicians  of  the  town  appear 
In  council  free  to  soothe  a  rising  fear 
By  rumor  of  a  distant  scourge  inspired, 
And  name  such  action  as  the  case  required. 

Assembled  once,  the  healing  brotherhood 

With  grave  demean  and  words  their  task  pursued. 

Though  hope  and  wisdom  speak  of  fate  amiss 

And  seem  o'erwhelmed,  they  know  the  abyss 

And  smile  the  darkness  through  to  walk  at  last 

In  fairer  ways,  to  nobler  fashion  cast. 

"Whom  first  the  argument  of  hope  to  state, 

O  verse,  affirm,  and  wisdom  celebrate ! 

Of  form  commanding  and  imposing  mien, 

An  air  of  leisure  and  a  brow  serene, 

Past  middle  years  yet  youth's  inspiring  light 

Still  kindled  in  his  eye  of  keenest  sight 

And  spoke  the  ready  grace  of  cultured  speech 

And  skill  that  knew  his  fav'rite  lore  to  teach. 

Now  flashed  his  eye  as  fervidly  he  said  : 

"My  faith  abides  that  danger  hence  is  fled  ; 

Sure  breaks  apace  the  season's  deadly  spell 

And  hope  e'en  now  persuades  that  all  is  well. 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  15 

•Our  teaching  brooks  not  seer  nor  fabler's  lore, 
We  draw  our  wiser  proofs  from  safer  store  ; 
Yet,  if  the  countless  oracles  without 
Spoke  forth,  they  name  no  moiety  of  doubt ; 
There  is  no  taint  upon  the  moving  air; 
The  skies  are  mild,  nor  evil  tokens  bear ; 
Soft  dews  renew  the  chalice  of  the  night 
And  spread  elixir  through  the  welcome  light  ; 
Nor  voice,  nor  sign  the  fever  plague  invites, 
But  each,  when  told,  an  ardent  hope  excites 
Of  long  immunity  from  evil  state. 
Our  house  in  order  stands  for  adverse  fate ; 
As  ne'er  before  we  wait  the  scourge  prepared; 
To  famed  resorts  our  affluent  ones  are  fared, 
While  others,  lured  by  peace  devoid  of  pride, 
In  rural  cots  and  neighboring  seats  abide. 
To  vainly  boast  is  scarce  removed  from  crime, 
Yet,  if  I  rightly  calculate  the  time, 
'Tis  five  years  since  his  saffron  face  we  saw, 
When  science,  hand  in  hand  with  social  law, 
Challenged  his  savage  and  unbridled  reign 
As  foreign  foe  the  nation  might  restrain. 
Henceforth  at  ocean's  verge  the  curse  must  stay, 
Nor  dare  renew  by  stealth  his  former  sway. 
All  this — who  doubts? — is  earnest  of  the  day 
When  man,  progressed  to  high  and  favored  state, 
With  dark  intrigues  and  mad  decrees  of  fate 
And  such  misfortune  as  belongs  to  chance, 
Shall  measure  equal  strength,  and  thus  enhance 


16  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

The  glory  of  his  days  and  raze  withal 
The  frowning  mass  of  fate's  opposing  wall. 
For  that  fair  goal  the  general  purpose  pants 
And  thrills  expectant  at  the  next  advance ! " 

As  silent  touch  of  twilight's  dewy  spell 
Falls  o'er  and  stills  the  rustling  wood,  so  fell 
This  cheerful  speech  the  learned  circle  on, 
Approved  of  all,  save  one,  observant  grown 
From  long  experience  in  the  plague-cursed  climes 
Of  tropic  lands.     High  wish  in  other  times, 
When  youth  was  strong  and  science  held 
Commanding  sway  of  thought,  had  hence  impelled 
To  brave  insidious  death  and  in  his  lair 
Attack  that  dread  whose  coming  brought  despair. 

He,  rising,  statue  poised  a  moment  stood, 

His  face  betraying  old  Acadian  blood ; 

Then  bent  his  comely  form  in  conscious  pride, 

And  to  his  brother's  ardent  words  replied  : 

"  Your  reasoning  as  it  runs  is  fair  to  hear, 

And  if  not  sound  at  least  will  please  the  ear; 

'Twere  pleasant  task  such  logic  to  imbibe 

And  to  your  transcendental  creed  subscribe ; 

But  vain  I  fear  your  prophecy  of  good. 

Alas,  if  time  should  blight  this  cheerful  mood, 

And  leave  where  hopes  rejoice  but  fortitude ! 

The  fever  rages  now  in  all  Balize  ; 

Cuba  is  not  without  the  fell  disease ; 

And  Key  "West,  though  the  truth  is  hard  to  gain, 

I  much  suspect  has  kept  her  isle  in  vain; 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  17 

And  mcm'iy  serves  me  of  a  time  long  gone — 

My  home  was  in  the  ancient  Creole  town — 

The  ending  of  a  season  much  like  this; 

The  summer  waned,  and  nothing  went  amiss; 

September's  sultry  days  were  growing  mild; 

The  evenings  dropped  like  visions  undefiled ; 

The  natives  dreamed,  as  thousands  from  the  States, 

No  evil  nigh,  when  suddenly  the  fates 

Seemed  all  their  iron  hands  to  lift  and  wage 

Relentless  war  alike  on  youth  and  age. 

As  bands  of  armed  men  that  long  had  lain 

In  stealthy  wait,  the  fever  rose  amain, 

And  heaped  the  city  in  a  day  with  slain. 

Full  fierce  it  broke,  full  fierce  from  fifty  points, 

Yet,  strange  to  tell,  that  year  the  rule  disjoints: 

No  fever  could  be  traced  on  all  the  seas, 

In  tropic  lands  no  tidings  of  the  dread  disease, 

And  we  alone  of  all  the  world  were  cursed. 

We  deal  with  fierce  and  stealthy  foe,  nor  durst, 

If  still  our  wits  abide,  a  respite  take 

Till  winter's  winds  our  benison  shall  make." 

To  this  a  third  returned  in  tones  of  mirth, 
Although  half  moved  to  own  the  reason's  worth: 

"  You  then  would  have  us  write  and  seal  our  wills, 
Our  epitaphs  inscribe,  since  shuffling  haste 

Is  like  to  leave  no  time  therefor.     But  ills 
There  be  of  greater  moment  than  this  last. 

A  prudent  care  is  worthy  noblest  wills; 
But  man  by  fear  unnerved  is  man  debased." 
2 


18  BUPEIIT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Pasteur,  for  such  the  mild  Acadian's  name 
(With  him,  as  else,  not  all  unknown  to  fame), 
Thus  made  reply :  "  I  speak  a  danger  near, 
An  apprehension  nowise  born  of  fear, 

But  of  that  better  mind  which  warns  and  cheers ;  , 

I 
Yet,  though  'tis  so,  no  remedy  appears, 

We  stand  an  inland  port,  nor  say  nor  choose  I 

What  tonnage  we  will  pass,  or  what  refuse. 

Our  Congress  should  this  vital  matter  meet, 

And  give  our  subtle  foe  a  last  defeat. 

The  war  must  open  at  the* nation's  door, 

And  press  this  dragon  to  the  ocean's  shore ; 

Ay,  more  than  this,  in  sooth,  must  then  befall : 

Each  lurking-place,  each  haunt  by  city's  wall, 

Each  reeking  vault  where  death  resides, 

His  ally  proves  ;  a  thousand  gates  besides 

Are  open  in  the  viewless  air,  nor  doubt, 

A  cause  is  found  within  as  found  without — 

These,  too,  must  know  the  conquering  war ;  must  prove 

The  strength  of  truceless  law,  ere  forward  move 

Our  people's  hopes.     As  men  who  own  the  sense 

Of  public  trust,  the  present's  dire  suspense 

We  must  with  active  counsel  meet.     A  plea 

I  recommend  to  every  house  to  see 

Its  part  in  shaping  of  the  city's  good 

By  strict  regard  to  health  in  air  and  food. 

Should  all  to  this  without  dissent  agree, 

I  trust  me  much  no  plague's  advent  to  see." 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  19 

By  tact  of  skill  and  drift  of  various  mind, 

To  jousts  of  wit  the  wordy  war  inclined. 

The  council  heard,  a  moment  now  concerned, 

iSTow  moved  to  action,  now  to  lightness  turned, 

And  having  met  by  sage  advice  the  call, 

In  social  trend  the  learned  gossips  fall. 

"  Let's  to  the  weed,"  one  cries,  "  why  cheat 

Ourselves  of  this  ?  for  little  seems  it  meet 

To  give  to  life  alone  of  solemn  care, 

When  hangs  its  changing  fortunes,  bad  and  fair, 

On  such  capricious  chance ! " 

With  no  dissent, 

The  fragrant  weed  around  the  circle  went. 
Thus  passed  an  hour  in  pleasant  sort  beguiled, 
Like  bivouac  scenes,  where  thoughts  of  carnage  wild, 
Though  lurks  he  near  with  gory  hands  and  feet, 
Enter  no  more  than  into  love's  retreat, 
Till  he  whose  proud  Acadian  features  burned 
With  anxious  thought  the  discourse  mildly  turned : 

"  Now  pardon  grant,  if  I  disposed  should  seem 
Too  much  to  chase  an  interdicted  theme  ; 
'Tis  social  matter  that  I  would  unfold 
Which  grows  in  wonder  as  the  tale  is  told. 
You  each,  no  doubt,  have  marked  the  rapid  rise, 
The  wealth  and  growing  fame  of  Rupert  Wise, 
Our  young  Hippocrates  who  two  years  since, 
From  lectures  fresh,  took  up  his  residence 
In  modest  style  on  Celis  Parlor  Heights ; 
The  case  is  rare,  and  me  it  much  delights. 


20  RVPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

From  first,  he  showed  unusual  skill  and  tact ; 

His  birth,  his  high-born  ways  but  touched  the  fact ; 

Puzzled,  I  sought  for  reasons  more  exact, 

But  wonder  late  is  shorn  of  sense  and  word ; 

By  this  day's  post  I  have  the  latest  Record. 

It  bears  young  .Rupert's  autograph  descant, 

'  The  germs  of  fever  shown  to  be  a  plant] 

Eeplete  with  learning's  force,  in  logic  strong, 

Quite  bold  enough  for  learned  dean,  savant, 

Or  titled  master  of  the  healing  art ; 

Indeed,  I  style  the  same  a-  master-part. 

'Tis  freely  said  (the  Record  gave  the  hint, 

Seconded  by  a  leading  Eastern  print) 

This  treatise  wins  its  author  recognition 

And 't  may  be,  in  time,  a  decoration ; 

'Twere  but  a  step  across  the  water  then ; 

A  twelvemonth  more,  perchance,  with  famous  men, 

Though  overleaping  precedents  and  rules, 

Our  colleague  may  be  named  in  Old  World  schools." 


Xow  spake  the  senior  of  the  brotherhood, 
A  man  benign,  who  seemed  in  youth  renewed 
At  threescore  years,  as  if  of  Heaven's  will 
Some  high  estate  to  grace  or  aptly  fill 
Some  lot  requiring  ripest  thought.     To  him 
Fortune  was  not  the  gross  return  or  whim 
Of  fickle  chance,  but  mind  untarnished,  clear, 
With  large  support  of  soul  to  soothe  and  cheer 
The  mind  through  arduous  tasks.     Him  they  hear : 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  21 

"A  lively  interest  rises  in  my  breast 

For  this  same  youth,  and  'tis  to  be  confessed 

As  no  mean  cause  for  sense  of  pride  to  us 

Arid  to  our  calling  that  he  prospers  thus ; 

His  parts  and  words  show  genius'  fair  impress ; 

His  birth  and  station  speak ;  nor  less  express 

His  comely  modesty  and  easy  bearing — 

A  dress  admired,  but  one  of  rarest  wearing — 

Like  any  Greek,  young  Rupert  wears  his  grace ; 

Adonis  scarce  possessed  more  handsome  face. 

These  well  might  win  him  foremost  rank  and  place, 

But  grounds  exist  for  doubt  and  friendly  fear, 

Indeed,  what  soon  must  reach  the  public  ear 

irTis  safe  to  iterate  in  private  way ; 

Although  in  mind  and  frame  and  social  stay, 

In  noble  plans,  he  firm  and  anchored  seems, 

One  darkest  curse  dims  all  his  future  dreams, 

And  one  which,  though  we  understand  too  well, 

Binds  oft  our  brotherhood  with  cruel  spell, 

This  same  hath  set  on  him  its  base  impress — 

He  loves  the  cup  and  drinks  to  mad  excess." 

Hereat  a  third  caught  up  the  growing  tale — 
A  bachelor  of  prim  attire,  with  pale 
And  smirking  face:  a  gallant  in  his  day, 
But  now  grown  stern,  with  but  the  feeblest  ray 
Of  tender  light  left  in  his  eyes  of  blue  : 
"Not  current  goes  the  story,  yet  quite  true ; 
This  Eupert  has  a  love  affair:  therein 
The  secret  of  his  life  and  of  his  sin 


22  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Grows  deep  in  coloring  :  its  heroine 

A  fair  and  fragile  girl,  one  Madeline, 

A  planter's  child,  petted,  adored,  and  sought, 

Yet,  strange  to  say,  not  spoiled,  displaying  naught 

In  wish  or  act  but  speaks  uncommon  mind. 

Most  to  such  converse  seems  her  thought  inclined 

As  touches  noble  action,  conquers  doubt, 

And  calls  the  subtlest  points  of  logic  out ; 

Withal  a  child  and  artless  as  the  wind, 

Veering  to  trivial  sense  of  womankind: 

A  kirtled  queen,  Minerva  .sewing  floss, 

'Tvvixt  stellar  problems  smoothing  birdie's  gloss. 

She  loves  young  Wise,  nor  other  passion  knew. 

From  early  childhood  side  by  side  they  grew, 

But  this  one  vice  has  cleft  them  far  apart ; 

Her  hand  she  keeps,  yet  gives  him  all  her  heart. 

His  bold  agnosticism,  cold  and  flippant  doubt, 

He  hides  from  her,  whose  soul  is  most  devout 

And,  true  to  woman's  faith,  bids  love  remain 

Till  love  itself  shall  heal  her  every  pain. 

She  lives  a  tearful  hope  that  soon  or  late 

His  manhood  may  assert  itself,  and  fate 

Be  changed  to  happier  current  in  the  end  ; 

And  so  her  thought  preserves  a  peaceful  trend. 

But  hope,  alas  !  is  vain.     He  who  can  hold 

His  treason  out  against  such  love  is  sold 

To  baseness  and  an  evil  self — a  slave 

To  appetite — and  merits  not  to  have 

One  kindly  thought,  far  less  such  love  as  this ! 

Hope  there  is  not  this  side  the  grave's  abyss, 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  23 

This  side  of  Hades  or  the  waves  of  Styx, 

Or  such  dread  state  as  guilty  fear  depicts, 

That  he  will  cease  to  quaff  the  fiery  shame, 

Though  maiden's  blood  mixed  with  its  liquid  flame. 

His  father,  rich  and  strong  and  fitted  well 

For  honors  high  in  state,  and  born  to  tell 

The  rights  of  man,  who  even  in  tender  youth 

Was  forward  in  such  things  and  loved  the  truth, 

Later  the  friend  of  Prentiss  and  to  him 

Second  alone  in  flexive  speech,  less  dim 

In  thought,  and  bolder  in  all  argument — 

Alas,  too  much  like  him  in  evil  bent! 

He  quenched  (sad  fate!)  in  wine  that  god-like  fire 

And  died  bereft  of  mind,  as  beasts  expire! 

How  can  we  better  of  the  son,  who  sprung 

From  stem  diseased,  self-nurtured  and  so  young, 

Reveals  the  vice  as  genius  of  his  sire?" 

Pasteur,  the  darker  shades  of  thought  that  lay 

Along  his  mind,  like  clouds  upon  the  day, 

Chased  by  the  sun  of  merriment  away, 

Twitted  these  earnest  words  with  hidden  jest: 

"You  speak  with  warmth  ;  in  reason  one  had  guessed 

You  look  yourself  with  passion's  eye  that  way. 

Too  long  you've  left  that  matter  of  the  heart 

To  want ;  too  long  withstood  the  tender  art ; 

You  late  confessed  to  six  and  fifty  years, 

'Tis  not  a  sound  to  please  a  maiden's  ears, 

So  now  repress  your  passion's  rising  force 

And  settle  down  to  pills  and  dry  discourse." 


24  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

The  answer  came  as  from  a  long-forbidden  source: 

"  Too  fair  and  pure  a  realm  is  •woman's  love, 

Too  sacred  all  its  heavenly  visions  prove, 

For  soul  like  mine.     Afar  I  gaze,  admire, 

But  know  no  thoughts  so  mad  as  thence  aspire ; 

Her  worth  I  own,  confessed  in  earlier  days, 

^s  or  deem  a  fault  the  affluence  of  my  praise. 

In  sooth,  for  this  fair  maid  I  feel  concern, 

Though  only  such  as  lighter  thoughts  might  turn ; 

For,  truth  to  tell,  acquaintance  ne'er  so  slight 

I  boast  with  Madeline;  a  stiff,  polite, 

And  hasty  introduction  on  the  guards, 

A  friendly  salutation  afterwards, 

Tell  all  our  intercourse  from  first  to  last, 

Xor  shade  of  tender  thought  its  memories  cast." 

"Your  words,"  Pasteur  replied,  "echo  romance: 

'  Upon  the  guards  ' — a  trivial  circumstance, 

Yet  many  life  arrangements  owe  their  force 

To  no  more  serious  thing — an  easy  course, 

A  salutation  here  or  there  by  chance, 

A  glint  of  moonlight  through  the  night's  expanse, 

Mutual  tastes  discovered,  friendly  ways, 

An  idyl  through  the  sloth  of  summer  days, 

A  walk,  a  drive,  and  trysts  on  quiet  eves, 

A  pledge,  a  vow,  the  fall  of  autumn  leaves, 

A  dash  of  winter  winds,  a  burst  of  light 

Through  perfumed  halls,  the  golden  circlet's  plight, 

A  wedding  chant,  the  lapse  of  life's  content, 

A  quiet  home — and  so  the  thread  of  life  is  spent." 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  25 

"Avaunt!  for  shame  !  to  tickle  ears  like  mine 

With  words  that  speak  such  gushing  thought !  New  wine 

Meets  not  the  old,  nor  can  you  graft  the  rose 

Upon  the  hawthorn  bough ;  its  forms  oppose 

The  ruder  fiber  of  the  weathered  tree, 

So  dreams  of  maids  and  love  befit  not  me. 

Go,  put  your  ravings  in  a  penny  book, 

And  then,  perchance,  some  maiden,  love  forsook, 

Some  idle  dreamer  under  summer's  sky 

Will  read,  and  you  more  wealth  shall  gain  thereby 

Than  you  are  like  to  see  the  whole  year  through 

By  magic  of  your  skill  and  nostrums  too." 

To  end  this  witty  tilt,  broke  in  once  more 

The  senior's  voice ;  not  listless  as  before 

His  air,  but  changed  and  heavy  was  his  mood 

With  fears  augmented  and  the  gath'ring  load 

Of  danger  felt.     Thus  spake  he*,  blending  well 

A  tinge  of  mirth  with  sadder  words  that  fell : 

"  Enough !  enough !  break  off,  your  speeches  tire ; 

They  tell  a  task  essayed  without  desire 

And  mind  me  of  a  scene  that  marked  the  days 

When  iron  monsters  fringed  with  lurid  blaze 

The  river's  strand  before  the  city's  front, 

And  through  the  dragging  weeks  we  felt  the  brunt 

Of  leaden  war.     The  lines  of  bristling  steel 

Fell  like  a  wall  across  the  land;  to  feel 

The  pinch  of  want  became  our  daily  meed, 

For  nothing  came,  and  direr  grew  the  need. 


26  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

'Twas  on  that  last  eventful  day  J  stood 

Before  the  baker's  door  in  speechless  mood. 

He  seemed  to  read  my  fear  nor  left  a  doubt, 

But  answered  straight:  'My  friend,  the  dough  is  out!v 

But  whence  his  thought  or  what  his  words'  import 

'Twere  bootless  now  to  ask.     Instant  report 

Confirmed  the  town's  surrender  to  the  foe. 

Whether  'twere  that  or  lack  of  cakes  and  dough 

I  did  not  further  seek.     In  either  place 

The  rule  applies,  so  rest  this  fruitless  case. 

The  hours  have  far  tow'rd  somber  midnight  waxed,. 

Your  honored  heads  for  wit  are  overtaxed ; 

To-morrow's  sun  will  bring  to  each,  I  ween, 

New  toils ;  but  hours  of  slumber  intervene, 

And  well  behooves  it  us  to  seek  repose ; 

The  fear  we  fain  would  scorn  more  real  grows. 

A  fortnight's  space  our  hopes  will  make  or  mar ; 

But,  come  what  may,  we're  entered  for  the  war." 

:Now  midnight  clothed  in  shades  and  ebon  gloom 
The  favored  town,  and  silence  as  of  doom 
Held  cot  and  lofty  dome  in  mute  embrace ; 
The  watch-stars,  mounting  toward  their  vigil  place, 
In  shining  ranks  approached  the  sable  tower, 
And  flung  their  beams  creation's  vastness  o'er. 
What  darkness  looked  they  on !  what  sorrow  read 
Through  latticed  ways,  where  smothered  dread 
Spoke  forth  in  sleepless  eyes  or  forced  its  seal 
On  fevered  lips  and  brows  too  soon  to  feel 
The  fiercer  touch  of  mortal  ill ! 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  27 

While  yet 

The  darkness  held  its  sway  and  cold  dews  wet 
His  thick,  neglected  locks,  the  night  patrol — 
A  stern,  unflinching  man,  who  softly  stole 
Like  some  dark  specter,  year  by  year,  along 
The  silent  streets  and  alleys  dark  among — 
Anon  heard  phantom  feet  upon  the  wind 
AVhile  viewless  hoi-semen  trode  the  night  behind, 
And  cried  the  van-guard  of  a  coming  woe, 
Hurried  themselves  from  peaceful  scenes  below 
To  that  far  bourne  with  dread  and  evil  haste. 
Others  protest  a  tall  fierce  spirit  paced 
From  cottage  door  to  marble  balcony 
And  marked  with  strange  device  each  casement  high — 
Some  say  with  shape  like  demon's  cloven  hoof, 
Others  with  sign  of  such  attenuate  proof 
As  spirit  sight  alone  avails  to  read — 
Earnest  of  course  the  besom  death  should  lead. 

The  sexton,  old  and  full  of  monkish  dole, 
Eclated  how  a  sacred  hand  had  smote 
In  sleep  that  night  his  withered  form,  and  led 
Him  forth  where  slept  inurned  the  mold' ring  dead, 
And  planned  him  twoscore  hundred  open  graves, 
Blessing  with  chalice  and  the  prayer  that  saves, 
So  that  the  unshriven  dead  might  rest  at  least 
In  holy  ground  while  death  pursued  his  feast. 
Protesting  still  Avith  fear  and  reverend  faith, 
The  ancient  man  recalled  his  father's  wraith 


28  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Ofttimes  had  filled  his  sight,  when  that  his  death 

The  circling  months  had  brought  to  mind;  his  breath 

Returned  to  warn  some  evil  must  befall 

His  offspring  near  that  fatal  day;  withal 

That  night  his  father's  ghost  in  deep  concern 

Appeared,  and  from  its  legendary  urn 

In  Tara  old,  o'er  ocean  forced  to  fly, 

His  family  banshee  lifted  mortal  cry; 

He,  hapless  man,  the  last  of  that  high  trust, 

The  banshee  hence  must  sleep  with  Tara's  dust! 


CANTO  SECOND 


I. 

f  iQIIO  nameth  life?     The  deep  portentous  gloom 
^^     That  drops  anon  when  breaks  its  borrowed  spell ; 
The  silent  gleam  of  stars  from  morning's  womb ; 

The  sudden  burst  of  daylight's  conqu'ring  swell ; 

The  bounding  into  sunlit  ways,  where  dwell 
The  living  thoughts  of  shape  and  mold  divine 

That  speak  of  wise  and  tender  wish  and  tell 
Some  kindred  hand,  impelled  by  love's  design, 

Hath  spread  its  palm,  in  kingly  wise,  to  bless; 

And  voice  that  bids  the  night  be  day,  nor  welcome  less. 

Who  nameth  life?    A  dream,  a  fading  cloud — 
Fantastic  wanderer  of  a  boundless  sky, 

Gilded  with  unenduring  light,  or  plowed 

By  angry  storms.     Unchosen  choice !  we  cry 
For  length  of  days  and  drink  the  chalice  dry, 

Supposing  this  were  all.     Mystery  dread  ! 
Yet  sweet  because  so  much  a  mystery; 

Joy  born  of  pain  and  life  born  of  the  dead  : 

And  clouds  that  travail  with  the  thunder's  pain 
AYeep  liquid  life  and  sweetness  on  the  fruitful  plain. 

(29) 


30  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

II. 

Hard  by  a  wide  expanse  of  inland  waves, 
Where  primal  warmth  of  summer's  sunshine  laves 
The  fruitful  acres  of  an  old  demesne, 
A  lordly  homestead  rises  up  between 
A  vistaed  range  of  Lombard  boles  that  stand, 
Like  domelcss  columns  in  a  wasted  land. 
Green  darkness,  cast  by  elms  and  ancient  limes, 
Half  hides  the  lofty  gables,  porch,  and  rimes 
Of  weathered  stucco  under  Scottish  tiles 
That  glisten  white  and  red  above  the  leafy  aisles. 
Northward  the  boundless  furrowed  valleys  range, 
Alternate  white  and  brown  with  staples'  change; 
Southward  the  verdant  pasture  lands  outroll 
To  marge  on  sinuous  glade  and  amber  pool, 
Lavish  of  grassy  fens  and  cockle  dells, 
Eifled  by  soft-eyed  kine  to  sound  of  tinkling  bells. 

Here  dwelt,  in  exile  from  the  world's  desire, 
That  Madeline  who  cheered  her  widowed  sire 
With  reverent  speech  and  love's  adjusted  power, 
Beguiling  evening's  still  and  dusky  hour 
With  gentlest  service,  duteous  constancy, 
With  lute  and  lay  of  pleasing  minstrelsy, 
Yet  nursed  within  her  bosom's  spotless  scrine 
The  cruel  pang  that  passing  years  refine — 
The  pang  of  hope  deferred,  of  love  unwise — 
An  angel  fearing  its  own  paradise. 
The  wine  of  joy  from  bitter  lees  was  bred, 
And  cheerful  words,  like  leaves  of  roses  wed 


KUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  31 

To  thorny  stem,  sat  on  a  heart  that  bore 

Such  poignant  grief  as  pierced  it  to  its  inmost  core 

Now  came  the  eve,  such  eves  as  bless 

This  favored  land :  roseate  flush  and  stress 

Of  sunset  skies  and  soft  south  winds  that  shake 

Ambrosial  sweetness  from  the  flow'ry  brake, 

And  mild  intoxicants  of  odorous  breaths 

From  clustered  elder-boughs  and  bulbous  wreaths 

Of  great  magnolia-trees ;  murmurous  sounds 

Of  nature's  mingling  under-tones,  and  rounds 

Of  far-off  notes  some  dusky  troubadour 

Chants  lustily  alone,  his  labors  o'er; 

Or  distant  throbbings  of  the  heart  of  steam 

In  some  grim  packet's  side,  riding  the  stream 

With  fleecy  freight — its  deep  and  muffled  swells 

Prophetic  of  the  plaint  that  fate  compels 

From  heart  of  universal  man,  who  stems 

The  tide,  distraught  of  weight  that  peace  condemns. 

Monitions,  too,  of  spirit  essence  move 

Upon  the  soul,  and  every  power  involve 

In  quick  gestations  of  delightful  sense. 

Such  eve  prevailed,  and  'neath  the  soft  defense 

Of  clamb'ring  vines  that  trailed  her  garden  o'er 

Walked  Madeline  with  anxious  thought  and  sore, 

Caressing  as  she  passed  each  floret's  head, 

And  on  each  petal  lip  a  trembling  tear-drop  shed. 

O  guerdon  pure  of  our  lost  Eden  bliss ! 
Sweet  recompense  of  grief  and  hope  amiss  i 


32  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

The  flowers  that  wilding  blush  in  woodland  shade, 

Or  blow  beside  the  hedge  or,  beauty  rayed, 

Grace  garnered  fields  and  home's  love-lighted  bowers — 

God's  love  be  praised  for  love  and  leaves  and  flowers! 

u Behold,  into  my  garden  I  am  come!" 

The  Eose  of  Sharon  saith,  the  sweet  Bridegroom. 

Was  it  the  vale  of  tears,  Gethsernane, 

Death  gloomed  from  rugged  brow  of  Calvary, 

Where,  with  torn  hands  and  anguish-riven  heart, 

lie  plucked  rich  spiceiy  boughs  and  myrrh,  a  part 

Of  His  own  self,  that  tree  of  life  that  grew 

Hard  by  the  fontal  \vave,  under  the  seventh  blue  ? 

0  lily  !  one  red  spot  thy  whiteness  shows ; 

1  kiss  thy  petals,  and  the  wonder  grows, 
For  in  thy  deepest  heart  it  crimsons  most. 
Not  one  sweet  drop  of  that  rich  blood  was  lost. 
Heldest  thou  forth  a  chalice  pure  as  love 

To  drink  ?     Irreverent  must  thou  seem  to  prove, 

O  anxious  faith  ?    Howbeit,  this  I  know, 

He  loved  the  flowers,  and  ever  told  his  woe 

To  them,  and  breathed  on  them  his  tend'rest  breath, 

Making  them  tell  the  tale  of  life  and  death 

As  seen  through  his  mild  eyes,  and  chose  his  hour 

When  flow'ring  Nisan  dropped  its  shower 

Of  asphodels  and  wild  thyme  everywhere, 

And  when  he  slept  at  last  they  laid  him  there, 

In  Joseph's  garden  where  the  fringed  lilies  were. 

Eftsoon  a  weeping  Magdalene  found, 

Lingering  still  that  sacred  vault  around, 


RUPEET  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  33 

Iu  whom  she  read  the  simple  gardener's  mien 
Till  that  his  voice  revealed  the  Xazarenc. 
Might  Madeline,  the  broken-hearted,  find 
Amongst  her  flowers  that  same  "Eahboni"  kind! 

The  summer  winds  toyed  with  her  flowing  hair, 

Exotics  rained  their  perfumes  on  the  air, 

And  cast  a  wealth  of  waxen  forms  that  grew 

More  sweet  when  crushed  beneath  her  dainty  shoe. 

A  broken  urn  lay  near,  its  dead  anemones 

Typing  too  well  love's  wasted  memories. 

Her  fragile  fingers  clutched  a  penciled  sheet, 

Its  dainty  seal  and  tinted  covering  neat 

That,  dropped  by  chance,  lay  on  a  bed  of  phlox, 

Like  alabaster  set  in  crusted  blocks 

Of  purple  gems  above  a  temple's  shrine, 

Bespeaking  tracery  of  words  divine, 

"Whose  sense  must  needs  have  smit  with  fatal  force 

A  heart  already  quenched  at  vital  source. 

Her  dark-brown  eyes  that  lustrous  shone  were  fair 

With  frcnzying  light,  but  mute  despair 

Had  settled  on  the  face  of  perfect  mold 
That  showed  insensate  whiteness  like  the  sheen 
Of  some  pale  star  through  vapory  moonlight  seen ; 

And  now  the  dark  eyes'  light  grew  pensive,  cold, 
The  quiv'ring  lips  in  troubled  accents  moved, 
And  breathed  a  speech  that  erst  too  much  had  proved: 

"  Courage,  my  woman's  heart,  be  brave  and  stout, 
Though  sorrow  lade  and  passion  measure  out 
Each  crimson  drop  that  warmly  courses  thee, 
0 


34  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

And  leave  with  each  a  grief  its  own  to  be, 
Though  thou  hast  felt  of  hope  the  utmost  pain 
Till,  suffering  long,  thou  knewest  hope  was  vain ; 
Though  thou  hast  felt  the  torturing  sense  and  smart 
Of  newborn  shame  and  fate's  relentless  art — 
Pathless,  my  tear-scorched  heart,  I  bid  be  still, 
Of  bitter  tears  thou  canst  but  weep  thy  fill ! 

" '  "Woman,  why  weepest  thou  ? '  a  tender  voice 
Asked  long  ago.     "Weeping  is  not  thy  choice, 
But  aye  has  been  thy  lot :  a  wild  swept  harp 
Since  first  that  heart  was' bared  to  feel  the  sharp, 
Fierce  blasts  without  those  sun-blest  vales  that  made 
Its  earliest  home.     That  thou  hast  dearly  paid 
Thy  fault,  let  say  old  tales  of  sword  and  lust 
From  leagured  towns ;  and  desert-withered  dust 
Of  ancient  capitals ;  let  her  that  wept 
Beside  the  Ilian  distaff;  they  that  kept 
Campana's  furrowed  fields  bedewed  with  tears, 
And  Punic  daughters,  from  their  birth  to  curse 
Of  foreign  shame  foredoomed,  and  Attic  maids, 
And  that  long  line  of  weeded  mourning  shades 
That  moves  through  history's  dim-aisled,  mystic  fane, 

«/  v 

Attest  with  soul-born  throes  of  undeserved  pain ! 

These  filled  their  tearful  lots  and  went  their  way, 

Fading  at  autumn  touch  of  sorrow's  day, 

To  spring  again  by  some  still  vernal  wave 

Beyond  the  hazy  doubts  that  skirt  the  grave, 

No  withering  leaf  of  hope  to  know,  no  sigh 

Of  blasting  winds — they  waited,  suffering ;  so  must  I. 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  35 

41  If  love  essays,  as  oft  in  other  days, 

To  cast  its  horoscope  of  joyful  wish, 
And  sweeps  along  the  future's  veiled  years, 

But  swift,  portentous  shadows  darkly  rush, 
Like  evil  things,  before  my  troubled  gaze, 

And  ne'er  a  favoring  star  or  sign  appears. 
I  cannot  trust  that  fond  delusive  thought 

That  strengthened  ties  and  sealed  bridal  vows 
Will  break  an  evil  pow'r,  more  evil  fraught, 
That  love  restrained  and  hope  deferred  break  not; 

To  yield  to  fate  that  last  restraint  endows 
With  evil  absolute  a  now  thrice  bitter  lot. 

"  But  once  again,  yet  once  again;  perchance,  I  slight 
Some  word,  some  simple,  doubly  precious  word 
That,  like  a  window  tow'rd  the  dawning  light, 

Lets  morning  through  with  touch  of  hallowed  peace. 
O  lines  by  true  love  tears  already  blurred, 

And  waking  fateful  echoes  that  shall  cease 
Only  when  soul  shall  stand  to  soul  revealed 

In  that  consuming  Presence,  knowing  all, 
Give  forth  thy  secret,  if  there  be  concealed 

In  thee  one  gleam  of  hope  or  duty's  higher  call ! " 

The  tearful  eyes  once  more  review  the  written  sheet 
Whose  passioned  words  the  evening  winds  repeat : 

"  Sweet  Madeline,  hear  this  my  latest  plea 
So  often  made  'tis  moved  by  dolorous  sighs ; 

Now  writ  in  tears  and  well-nigh  sealed  with  blood. 

In  prison  dark,  my  soul  goes  out  to  thee, 


36  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  UOMAXCE. 

Lifts  up  its  voice,  and  fondly,  wildly  cries 

For  help  from  thy  dear  hands.     A  rising  flood 

Of  fears  and  doubts  o'erwhelm,  but  in  the  full 
Abiding  strength  of  that  deep  love  of  thine 
I  seek  repose.     'Tis  thou,  of  earthly  or  divine, 

Hast  pow'r  to  soothe  my  troubled  thoughts  and  lull 
The  angry  storm  and  wasting  strife  within. 

Pity,  if  thou  canst  pity  one  so  weak, 
And  quickly  come,  thou  radiant  dream  of  love, 

Thou  morn  of  peace,  into  my  life  and  speak 

The  gracious  word  thqt  seals  thee  ever  mine 
And  seals  me  unto  honor's  self  and  prove 

That  power  which  daily  I  extol  as  thine ; 
Bid  me  attend  thy  will,  and  lo !  I  come 
Swift  as  the  mated  doves  that  seek  their  home 

When  sudden  storms  burst  on  their  aerie  flight. 
'Tis  honor  bids  me  say  I  still  am  bound ; 

But  thou,  my  angel  keeper,  thou  hast  might, 
When  nuptial  love  shall  ripen  in  its  time, 

To  break  each  ling'ring  fetter  and  proclaim 

Me  free.     Heal  thou  my  soul's  corroding  wound  ; 

Bid  me  return,  as  erst,  in  thy  sweet  name  ! 
My  days  are  exile  ;  long  I  for  that  clime 

In  which  my  boyhood's  heart  felt  glad  surprise 

And  drank  thy  smiles.     Forever,  Eupert  Wise." 

"  Nay,  never  can  it  be,  although  each  flow'r 

That  blossomed  fresh  in  girlhood's  peaceful  morn 

Be  blighted  by  the  word,  and  envious  dust 
Rest  on  their  petals,  and  each  rapture  born 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  37 

With  them  be  turned  to  grief,  and  though  the  rust 

Dim  all  my  altar  gold,  it  may  not  be. 
Thou  seest,  soul,  the  path  grows  many  a  thorn, 

But  thou  shalt  tread  it  since  'twas  made  for  thee. 
Decide  I  must ;  be  this  the  moment  and  the  hour. 

O  that  I  had  a  friend  on  whom  to  lean ! 
Some  kindred  heart  to  share  my  heavy  load, 

That  walking,  in  my  somber  world,  between 
Their  love  and  His  who  shed  his  kingly  blood 

To  give  me  final  peace,!  might  find  strength 

To  journey  on  through  all  life's  weary  length ! 
O  for  the  voice  of  her  who  gave  me  birth ! 

O  for  a  mother's  constant  thought  to  lead 
The  way !     But  long  the  cold  obstructive  earth 

Has  claimed  that  gentlest  friend.     They  laid  her  head 
On  lowly  pillow  in  the  vale  where  oft  I  trod 

In  childhood's  years,  undreaming  of  my  loss, 
Undreaming  of  this  hour,  hid  save  from  God, 

Undreaming  of  the  fate  that  soon  should  toss 
The  life  that  she  so  fondl}T  prayed  might  know 

But  peaceful  days  and  fruited  joys  on  seas 
Thrice  turbulent  with  breaking  waves,  and  show 

Of  envious  chance  that  on  misfortune  preys. 
O  mother,  does  thy  waking  spirit  hear 

My  prayers,  the  burdening  sighs  I  heave, 
Or  know  when  I  am  near  thy  lonely  grave? 

Ray,  mother,  does  thy  soul  regard  thy  child 
\Yhen  on  that  grave  she  drops  the  pensive  tear, 

And  mourns  thy  life's  sweet  scope  and  vision  o'er? 


38  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

0  canst  thou  through  this  evening  twilight  mild 
Look  down — ay,  dost  thou  see  me  evermore  ? 

1  am  a  pilgrim  in  the  way,  beguiled 

No  more  by  earth,  and  soon  shall  be  as  thou. 
Oft  when  I  bow  at  evening  time  for  prayer, 

I  feel  unearthly  impress  on  my  brow, 
As  if  some  guardian  spirit's  touch  were  there; 

O  tell  me,  mother,  is  that  impress  thine? 
Enough !  I  know  that  thou  art  near  me  here ; 

Thy  life  of  love,  thy  memory's  constant  bloom, 
Breathe  patient  trust.     The  higher  will  is  mine  ! 

Yon  fair  ascending  star  whose  beams  are  shed 
In  radiance  half  melodious  round  thy  tomb 

A  beacon  light  becomes,  and  safe  shall  lead 
My  trustful  spirit  heavenward,  sunward,  home ! ' 

As  swells  the  rising  sea  with  refluent  shock, 

"When  back  recoiling  from  the  buttressed  rock, 

So  rose  the  maiden's  soul  upon  the  wave 

Of  troubled  sense  that  into  silence  drave 

And  seemed  to  die,  but  backward  turned  and  wrought 

With  misty  hands  a  spectral  dread  in  thought. 

Long  time  she  stood,  with  strong  decision  spent 

In  one  concern,  and  thus  her  purpose  went : 

"  My  father  wills  it,  and  I  make  my  own 

That  kind  paternal  thought,  with  kindred  near. 

In  that  dear  Old  Dominion  clime,  now  grown 
More  dear,  to  bide  the  fading  of  the  year; 


SUPSJtT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  39 

To  those  fair  mountains  lifting  their  blue  heads 

Above  the  scenes  of  beauty  in  the  vale 
Where,  like  a  tender  wilding  flower  that  spreads 

Its  petals  to  the  wooing  breezes,  frail 
As  their  induing  breath,  iny  mother  grew 

To  blissful  maidenhood,  I  turn  with  hope ; 
There  still,  perhaps,  with  sweetness  like  the  dew 

That  lingers  in  the  lily's  nodding  cup 
When  down  the  night  withdraws  the  bridegroom  sun, 

Her  spirit,  virgin  robed,  abides  my  prayer. 
There  will  I  seek  repose,  if  e'er  that  boon 

For  my  torn  heart  kind  Heaven  on  earth  prepare, 
Or  else  I  shall  find  rest,  unbroken  rest, 

In  silent  sleep  beside  the  gliding  wave, 
While  o'er  my  head  the  spring  doves  coo  and  nest 

And  blue-eyed  clovers  weep  above  my  grave. 

"  Who  knows  that  unrcvealed  life  beyond? 

Enough  that  in  the  bosom  of  its  years 
Love  shall  not  bring  despair,  nor  vital  bond 

Be  loosed  with  rain  between  of  fruitless  tears ! 
Ay,  Heaven  is  kind !  perchance  I  there  shall  know 

His  faultless  love,  and  winds  of  paradise 
Shall  catch  from  bowers  that  dust  untarnished  blow 

The  old-time  vows,  breathed  ere  that  thralling  vice 
Had  walked  within  the  shadow  of  our  faith. 

O  Father,  must  thy  noblest  work,  despoiled 
And  marred,  be  left  to  shame  eterne?     Why  saith 

Thy  word    '  His  angels  shall  have  charge,  lest  toiled 
Of  sin  he  dash  his  foot  the  stones  against?' 


40  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Shall  guardian  spirits  arch  in  vain  their  wings 
Above  that  laureled  head  ?     Must  that  bold  light 

Of  goodly  intellect  that  flows  like  springs 
Of  infant  day  go  out  in  deepest  night  ? 

Nay !  saith  a  wish  that  will  not  be  denied, 
A  wish  that  by  thy  certain  promise  plain'st: 

Must  mercy,  moved  to  die,  in  vain  have  died  ? 
Yet  will  I  trust  and  hold  thy  promise  true ; 

Our  weakness  is  thy  might,  and  still  thou  deign'st 
Our  prayers  and  cries,  nor  dost  thy  pleasure  rue. 

I  will  believe  thee  better  than  our  fears, 
Ay,  better  than  our  highest  faith  hath  made, 

Or  even  our  tenderest  speech  can  frame 
A  thought  of  thee !     Whether  from  sorrow  laid, 

Or  bliss  breathed,  on  our  hearts  there  wake  the  flame 
Of  purer  joys  and  nobler  wish,  appears 

To  feeble  sight  the  mask  of  cruel  chance ; 
But  who  loves  not  the  weeping  harp-string  best, 

And  who  feels  not  his  soul  rise  on  the  trance 

Of  plaintive  song? 

"Alas !  I  am  unblest 

"With  holy  memory  of  a  love  whose  glance 
Were  like  some  kindly  star's,  ascendant  proved 

At  natal  hour  and  holding  forth  through  life 
A  potent  charm.     Yet  to  my  fate  I  loved, 

And  that  deep  thought  was  in  my  being  rife, 
And  wrought  into  the  texture  of  my  soul. 

So  long  ago  my  tender  mind  retained 
No  memory  of  the  day,  love  on  the  scroll, 

The  fair  and  hidden  scroll,  of  life  detained 


.  RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  41 

His  fiery  wand  and  wrote  one  only  name. 

Dream  not,  ye  winds,  I  love  no  more.     That  fire 
Shall  burn  with  inextinguishable  flame, 

As  vestal  altar  on,  lighting  the  pyre 
Of  every  earthly  hope,  as  one  by  one 

The  days  consign  them  to  their  doom.     Yet  so 
We  meet  redeemed  at  last  from  evil  done, 

And  purged  from  dross,  what  matter  now  I  know 
Such  fiery  test?  what  though  my  spirit  cry? 

It  shall  be  well.     With  that  dear  hope  how  short 
The  years  to  wait;  yet  doubts, that  say  not  why, 

Are  mine ;  nor  more  is  made  of  winds  the  sport 
Yon  shredded  gossamers  that  toss  on  high 

Than  I  the  sport  of  fear  and  soul's  misgivings. 
Why  must  we  suffer  so  and  lift  a  fruitless  cry 

Who  are  the  crown  of  life  and  first  of  things? 
The  swallow  circling  toward  the  brim 

Of  yonder  sun-dyed  wave  knows  joy  alone, 
And  love  at  evening's  close  will  answer  him 

From  out  the  nest  beside  the  chimney  stone; 
Ah,  should  our  summer  tide  at  last  begin, 

Through  circling  of  the  endless  years  above, 
And  we,  its  sunny  bosom  resting  in, 

But  hear  the  purer  accents  of  our  love, 
Chased  by  the  winter  of  unrest  from  earth, 

It  will  be  well.     0  God,  thou  know'st  to  prove 
Our  love ;  in  death,  to  give  it  better  birth!  " 

With  dusky  wings  the  shadows  swept  the  sky; 

Her  owlet  horns  the  moon  pushed  through  the  leaves 


42  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

That  caught  the  glare  of  one  great  open  eye, 
Keeper's,  lone  gleaming  from  the  western  eaves 

Of  heaven's  blue  vault.     A  chill  of  dewy  air 

Rose  from  the  wave,  when  Madeline,  with  change 

To  sweet  composure  of  her  heart's  despair, 

Walked  slowly  from  the  garden  toward  the  grange. 

Now  mellow  lamp-light  filled  the  spacious  hall 

And  silence,  like  the  awful  hush  of  death, 
Broke  only  by  the  night-bird's  call, 

Held  earth  in  dusky  arms.     The  languid  breath 
Of  flowers  dropped  through  the  lattice  wide  and  bare  ; 

And  fancy  might  have  heard  the  muffled  steps 
Of  long-departed  guests  upon  the  stair, 

Like  mem'ries  threading  down  the  silent  years; 
And  in  the  heart  of  Madeline  two  trains 

Passed  ever  on,  and  one  was  doubts  and  fears 
That  beckoned  backward  to  the  past  with  plains 

And  many  bitter  words,  at  sight  of  days 
That,  bearing  signs  of  hope,  brought  but  despair ; 

And  one  was  trust  and  faith  that  moved,  apace, 
From  life's  spent  hopes,  upward  through  paths  of  prayer, 

"A  song,"  her  father  cried,  "a  song,  my  child ; 

To-morrow  takes  you  hence  for  many  days  ; 
A  tender,  plaintive  song,"  he  said  and  smiled 

A  smile  warm  with  the  summer  of  a  parent's  praise. 

Seated  before  the  ivory  bank  anon, 

While  unseen  fingers  swept  her  heart  with  pain, 


RVPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  43> 

She  swept  the  waking  octaves  with  her  own, 
And  rather  wept  than  sang  this  simple  strain : 

1  "  Through  life's  morning  fitful,  fleeting, 

With  its  dalliance  and  caressing 

Waking  thought  to  passion's  glow, 
Quick'ning  pulse  to  higher  beating, 
All  the  soul's  deep  force  expressing, 

Breathing  on  its  wish  below — 
I  am  waiting,  fondly  dreaming, 

On  the  sands  of  youth's  fair  shore ; 
Till  my  boast  shall  change  from  seeming, 
Till  my  stately  ship  comes  o'er. 

2  "  Now  the  roseate  tints  are  glowing 

Where  the  summer  skies  are  bending 

Downward  through  the  depths  of  light; 
And  my  once  glad  dreams  are  growing, 
Like  the  day  with  shadows  blending, 

Somber  with  no  sail  in  sight ; 
Still,  with  dauntless  trust  I'm  waiting 

On  the  lone  enchanted  shore, 
Heart  and  brain  to  hope  pulsating, 
Though  no  gallant  ship  comes  o'er. 

3  "•  Months  and  seasons  passing,  fleeting, 

In  their  circles  waxing,  waning, 

Lengthen  into  weary  years  ; 
Still  my  heart  is  wildly  beating, 
And  my  trust  is  uncomplaining, 

Though  oppressed  with  gathering  fears. 


44  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Hope  with  ardor  warm  is  burning, 
Beacon  midst  the  silent  years, 

Still  no  earnest  of  returning, 
Still  no  freighted  ship  appears ! 

4  "  Many  a  bark,  the  mad  wave  crossing, 

Has  escaped  and  anchored,  resting 

'Neath  a  placid  autumn  sky; 
But  amidst  the  ocean's  tossing, 

Where  with  wind  is  wind  contesting, 

Bides  my  gallant  ship  on  high, 
"While  with  yearnings  strange  I'm  waiting 

On  the  strand  where  joys  have  been, 
With  earth-pride  and  wish  abating, 
Till  my  wave-tossed  ship  comes  in  1 

5  "  Evening  shades  of  life  are  falling, 

O'er  the  hill-tops  darkly  brooding, 

Settling  slowly  o'er  the  main ; 
And  a  mystic  voice  is  calling — 

Sorrow's  surcease  sure  preluding — 

Calling  now  in  hope's  refrain ; 
And  my  spirit,  longing,  list'ning, 

Views  afar  the  silent  shore 
Bathed  in  morn's  eternal  glist'ning, 
Where  my  treasure  ship  shall  moor. 

£>  "Stars  of  peace  are  calmly  beaming 

Through  the  tempest  slowly  rifting— 
Stars  that  guide  my  bark  aright, 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  45 

Lamps  of  grace  whose  kindly  gleaming, 

O'er  the  treacli'rous  billows  sifting, 

Drives  the  dangers  from  the  night. 
Voice  of  power  shall  calm  its  heaving, 

Ocean's  deep  and  sullen  roar, 
And  my  ship,  the  waters  cleaving, 

Anchor  near  the  golden  shore !  " 


CANTO  THIRD. 


i. 

(( JTlHINE  own  self  know,"  well  spake  the  ancient  sage ; 
j.       But  who  can  know  himself,  the  heart's  wide  realm 
That  stretches,  like  an  untrod  land,  with  rage 

Along  its  coast  of  wild  dark  waves  that  whelm 
In  dire  dismay  who  seek  their  force  to  stem  ? 

Where  if,  by  chance  of  wisdom  taught  or  sent 
Of  Heaven,  one  safely  hold  his  storm-tried  helm, 

Searching  for  secret  lost  to  life's  intent, 

How  must  he  weep  the  shame  of  that  dark  continent ! 

Or  if,  perchance,  unsent  we  pensive  ride 
The  crested  waves  far  off  its  mystic  strand, 

The  distant  roar  of  billowy  seas  and  wide, 

Fierce  streams,  descending  mountain  paths,  command 

Our  various  fears,  and  awe  the  desert  land ; 
And  still  abide  its  secrets,  tufted  plains 

Hung  round  with  awful  wilds,  where  thickly  stand 
The  upas  forms,  and  deadly  damp  distrains 
The  kindly  air,  till  hope  expires  and  fate  complains. 

Yet  hath  the  strong  mysterious  God-man's  feet 

Compassed  in  pain  that  mist  world's  hidden  bounds, 

And  crimson  marked  its  desert  paths,  where  beat 
The  torrid  suns  of  fiery  grief,  and  sounds 

(46) 


liUl'ERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  47 

Of  agony  have  waked  its  dread  profounds — 
A  human  soul,  path-finding  love  and  hope, 

Still  pressing  on,  with  loneliness  and  wounds, 
Amid  the  night,  on  furtherest  seas  to  cope 
With  death  and  destined  lands  to  heaven's  invasions  ope. 

II. 

Within  his  study,  passion-tossed  and  racked 

With  fears  that  o'er  his  wine-fired  fancy  tracked 

Their  comet  paths,  paced  Rupert  Wise  and  fought, 

Through  rugged  ways  and  dark  defiles  of  thought, 

The  fierce-waged  battles  of  despair  and  doubt, 

Till  overborne  the  weary  soul  wailed  out : 

"  Life  is  a  cheerless  passage  through  the  night 

And  hope  a  pale,  delusive  meteor's  light 

That  streaks  the  gloom  with  sudden  fitful  glare, 

But  dies  the  moment  of  its  birth.     A  snare 

Is  that  desire  which  kindles  passion's  flame 

To  tender  thoughts  pursue  or  deeds  of  nobless  claim. 

0  that  I  had  not  known  this  mocking  sin, 

Or,  better  far,  that  I  had  never  been, 

Since  life  bears  not  the  pleasure  of  its  name, 

And  since,  alas !  the  future's  mystic  fame 

Is  void  of  softening  sheen  or  image  fair 

Of  other  life  when  doomed  mortals  dare  ! 

The  cup  that  rapture  brings  to  kindred  lips 
To  mine  yields  bitterness  and  fierce  despair; 

The  orb  that  nightly  into  ocean  dips 
Unchains  the  light  anew  o'er  earth  to  roll, 

And  shakes  the  tepid  dew  from  morning's  urn, 


48  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Brings  hence  to  me  no  morn  of  sweet  control, 
Nor  earnest  of  my  sinless  years'  return  ; 

The  stars  that  smile  to  other  eyes  and  shed 

Celestial  luster  on  their  sight,  instead 

I  see  as  jeweled  daggers  in  the  hands 

Of  that  unpitying,  sleepless  fate  who  stands 
Where  ends  at  length  the  path  of  mortal  fears, 

Ready  to  quench  the  last  of  reason's  breath 
And  shroud  in  night  the  fitful,  fleeting  years 

Of  suffering  man — I  hail  that  sleep  of  death  ! 

"And  yet,  God  knows,  if  through  yon  mocking  deep 

There  walks  a  being  such  as  Christians  say, 
God  knows  I  would  have  other  creed,  would  weep 

In  penitence  and,  like  the  humblest,  pray; 
But  worse  than  vain  were  that,  I  can't  believe ! 

Ah,  there's  the  rock  on  which  my  wish  is  wrecked; 
Far  back  as  memory's  willing  pinions  cleave, 

Mine  was  a  path  by  thought  of  God  unflecked  ; 
And  still  her  woof  doth  reason  blindly  weave 

With  doubts  and  strong  protests — thus  faith  is  checked 

"  Yet  this,  alas  !  describes  but  half  my  woe — 

To  hush  my  conscience  more  were  base  and  craven — 

I  am  a  slave,  a  menial  cursed  and  low, 

Of  appetite  which,  like  a  black-beaked  raven, 

Feasts  night  and  day  upon  my  vital  parts  ; 
Nor  can  I  break  the  Gorgon's  hated  power, 
'Tis  in  my  veins,  I  know — the  fatal  dower 

Of  our  ancestral  blood.     Toiled  by  its  arts, 


KUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  49 

My  father  fell  in  manhood's  gifted  prime  ; 
And  likewise  I  must  fall;  or — deeper  hell! — 

Reason  must  sink,  and  I  shall  close  my  fated  time 
Not  with  a  dash  of  wine,  but  in  a  madman's  cell ! 

"  O  Madeline,  thy  pale  and  anxious  face 

Looks  on  me  through  the  night — the  night  that  hides 
From  thee  and  all  the  world  my  one  disgrace  I 

'Tis  false  to  say  my  fate  with  thee  abides, 
But  thine  with  me;  had  I  responsive  will, 

I  need  but  ope  the  way  and  thou  wouldst  come 
With  all  thy  wealth  of  love  to  keep  and  fill 

My  weary  heart.     Stricken  I  stand  and  dumb, 
Adored  one,  before  thy  pleading  gaze  ! 

Those  tender  eyes  shall  haunt  me  to  my  doom, 
And  thy  sweet  voice  I  hear  in  all  my  ways. 

O  God !  this  nightshade's  death-distilling  bloom ! 
Oft  have  I  cast  aside  the  drunkard's  cup 

"With  awful  oath  to  spurn  it  all  my  days; 
But  ghostly  hands  have  held  its  madness  up, 

While  fierce  and  loud  my  demon  master  roared 
And  showed  a  ghastly  whip  of  serpent  thongs, 
Until  I  yielded  what  to  man  belongs 

And  on  my  writhing  soul  the  red  wine  poured! 

"  Worse  than  a  thousand  deaths  of  death  alone, 
Remorse  !  consuming  hell  within  the  soul; 

A  tossing  waste,  a  burning  desert  zone ; 

A  starless  sky  where  wrathful  thunders  howl ; 

A  curse  of  madness  on  the  midnight  air — 
4 


50  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

These,  more  than  these,  my  shrinking  sense  appall, 
And  speak  anew  that  awful  word — despair! 

"  Once,  goodly  legend  says,  a  lonely  youth 

Fresh  from  long  wanderings  in  a  desert  waste, 
Seeking  for  strength  in  life — ay,  death,  forsooth, 

Sat  on  a  tower's  black  crown  that  grimly  faced 
The  points  of  heaven  and  beetled  o'er  the  massed 

And  babbling  sons  of  one  wide  race,  that  chased 
Through  forms  and  feasts  a  hope  that  barely  cast 

A  shadow  on  their  fading  realm.     He  sate 
Measuring  in  thought  the*  depth  of  that  black  pit 

Beneath  the  towering  wall,  and  read  dark  hate 
In  every  face.     '  Cast  thyself  down ;  'tis  fit 

That  thou  shouldst  spurn  thy  soul's  untimely  fate,' 
A  spirit  spake  within ;  but  idle  whit 

Moved  not  that  moveless  soul,  but  dared  to  wait 
Its  fated  end.     Within  me  thus  there  cries 

A  voice,  loud  as  the  clarion  note  of  war : 
'  Cast  thyself  down  ;  fierce  are  thine  enemies ; 

The  pit  is  fathomless — 'tis  fitter  far.' 
But  else  there  cries :  '  Not  yet,  not  yet ;  suffice 

Their  wills;  bide  thou  death's  final  battle  jar ! ' 

"  But  must  I  bear  this  rankling  to  the  grave, 
This  thirst  for  liquid  fires  that  sate  not  thirst  ? 

That  youth  saw  holy  grail  whose  drainings  gave, 
Though  dashed  with  bitter  woes,  a  nameless  sweet ; 

That  grail  whose  draught  my  burning  fancies  brave 
Steeps  in  my  heart  until  it  fiercely  burst 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  51 

And  heals,  yet  never  heals,  itself  to  meet 

The  curse  again.     I  have  heard  say  (O  mind, 
My  better  motions,  where  ?)  a  tree  hath  leaves 

To  heal  a  wounded  heart.     Some  spirit  bind 
Them  on  the  bleeding  here,  and  let  me  sleep 

Sweet  sleep,  like  those  Arcadian  dreams  I  find, 
When  down  still  memory's  vales  I  lonely  go. 

O  spirit  of  the  silent  hours !     O  winds, 
That  deign  to  kiss  my  aching,  curse-marked  brow, 

Where  mother's  kindly  kiss  did  never  fall, 
Know  ye  no  kingly  spell  above,  below, 

No  healing  balm,  no  gift  reserved  for  all 
That  stays  the  flesh  and  fortifies  the  mind. 

Say,  ebon  night,  where  chance  thy  steps  to  fall, 
In  all  the  realm  that  knows  thy  darker  boast, 
Where  still  primeval  shades  and  silence  awe, 

Is  there  one  hiding-place  for  man  defiled? 
Deep  in  Vesuvius'  thundering  maw 

With  stormy  waves  of  ocean  o'er  it  piled, 
Or  on  the  lone  and  bleak  Siberian  coast, 

O  is  there  peace  for  me — a  fated  child? 
What  sounds?  The  midnight  mocks  with  scowling  brows. 

The  wind  in  idle,  bated  accents  dies 
Or  laughs  a  ghostly  laughter  in  the  cedar  boughs ; 

No  peace  ?  the  tongue  that  utters  that  is  false ;  it  lies — 
Ay,  peace  there  is,  of  Lethe  and  of  wine  ! 

Then  touch  me,  Bacchus,  with  thy  wonted  spell, 
Lay  poppies  on  this  throbbing  brow  of  mine, 

This  clamorous  brood  of  conscience  quell !  " 


52  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Herewith  he  filled  a  beaker  to  the  brim 

With  red  resolving  juice  from  Bacchus'  bower, 
And  o'er  the  beaker's  chased  and  crystal  rim 

Added  the  bane  of  Sinim's  deadly  flower, 
Quaffed  it  and  sate  as  in  remorseful  pain, 

Then  rose  and  lisped,  as  moved  of  newborn  power : 
"Ah,  peaceful  exit  from  a  dungeon's  gloom, 

Now  beats  my  pulse  aright,  my  troubled  brain 
Its  normal  force  renews,  my  thoughts  resume 

Their  wonted  trend,  and  now  with  might  and  main. 
I  must  work  up  my  treatise  on  the  nerves. 

How  fast  ambition's  scattered  seeds  do  grow  ! 

To-day  they  spring,  to-morrow  leave  and  blow ; 
The  pupil  speaks,  and  now  the  master  serves ; 

With  haste  my  name  has  gone  abroad ;  my  pen, 

At  will,  meets  those  of  all  the  learned  men. 

"  Let  passion  die  since  timorous  faith  forbids 

And  draws  its  whiter  veil, like  daisies'  lids 

At  eve's  ap'proach- ;  die  every  wistful  thought 

Save  those  ambition's  fervid  soul  hath  wrought 

To  do  and  dare  what  meaner  minds  forego 

From  sheer  consent  that  reason  falls  below ; 

Dark  science  hence  shall  o'er  my  passions  reign 

And  know  my  arduous  suit,  till  reason  gain 

The  longed  for  goal.     Then  plucked  shall  be  from  out 

The  garden  of  my  life  that  tender  doubt 

That  long  hath  swayed  my  wish  and  secret  lent 

Unto  my  years  its  mild  atropic  scent. 

Plucked  let  it  be,  though  every  spray  should  bleed 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  53 

And  cry,  with  human  anguish,  for  the  meed  • 
Of  longer  stay — 'twere  folly !  let  it  bleed ! 
Ay,  perish  leaf  and  root,  and  leave  but  scant 
Of  memory's  self,  ambition's  goodly  plant 
Instead  grow  up  a  lordly  tree,  and  cast 
Defiant  front  before  the  driven  blast. 

•"  There  is  no  truth  in  man's  evolved  frame 

Of  nature  or  of  supernature's  claim 

I  may  not  know  and  shall,  hence  here  proclaim 

My  freedom  from  all  lesser  things — ay,  more ! 

Hear  it,  my  ampler  powers !  there  is  a  store 

Of  wisdom  in  the  outer  world,  and  hence 

No  mind  has  dai*ed  to  climb.     "Tis  high  pretense, 

But  thou  shalt  tread  that  dizzy  eminence.  .  .  . 

Where  lore  of  crucible  and  astral  chart 

Has  failed  of  nature's  secrets,  braver  heart 

And  truer  science  all  shall  bring  to  light. 

What  rising  dreams  expand  my  soul's  delight ! 

That  which  is  named  for  want  of  nobler  sight 

Or  fate  or  death  or  dire  misfortune's  might, 

Is  but  of  nature's  cause  and  lies  within 

The  mastery  of  mind,  as  aye  hath  been 

The  ponderous  forms  of  being,  soil  and  tree, 

Rivers  and  rocks  and  gold  and  waste  of  sea ; 

Be  this  my  task,  like  those  in  legends  old, 

Yet  nobler  panoplied  with  strength  as  bold, 

To  hunt  this  dragon  of  a  newer  age 

Through  acne  paths  and  war  exterminate  Avage 

On  all  his  hateful  brood ! 


54  KUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

"  Fade,  then,  ye  dreams 
Of  soft  infolding  light;  before  me  streams 
The  glare  of  fiercer  days,  wherein  for  fame 
And  sense  of  proud  renown  I  enter  claim. 
But  stay,  my  thoughts,  why  weep  this  buried  love 
That  will  not  die  ?     The  singer,  fain  to  prove 
In  sordid  ways  and  selfish  acts,  his  mind 
To  mammon  wealth  and  worldly  greed  inclined, 
Hears  sighing  oft  his  long  neglected  harp, 
And  move  him  where  he  may,  or  join  the  carp 
Of  idle  tongues,  he  still  must  hear  its  notes 
Harmonious,  breathed  above  the  miser's  dotes — 
Eeproachful  snatches  of  forgotten  lays 
That  plead  return,  if  haply,  to  their  days. 
All  broken  lies  my  harp ;  I  hence  must  hear 
But  echoes  of  its  plaints,  as  on  the  sear 
Disrobed  willow-boughs  its  fragments  hang, 
As  oft  before,  when  pensive  love  unstrang 
Its  golden  wires.     Farewell,  love's  riven  shell, 
Sweet  hopes  and  tender  sighs,  adieu !  farewell ! 
Another  life  I  enter  on  ;  I  can, 
I  dare  the  task  that  crowns  and  scepters  man !  " 

Loud  raps  without  now  reached  the  student's  ear. 

"  Who's  there,  a  patient  or  a  visitor  ?  " 
"  Neither,  and  yet  are  both  in  waiting  here." 

"With  this  wide  open  flew  the  lattice  door, 
And  one, well  known  to  those  who  far  or  near 

Walked  through  the  town,  stood  in  the  open  way- 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  55 

An  ancient  man  who  bore  an  antique  lyre 
And  sang  as  any  chanced  to  fee  his  lay. 

"  Why  up,  old  man,  at  this  unseemly  hour 
When  spooks  and  bats  for  hurt  of  man  conspire? 

You  should  be  quiet  in  your  easy  bed, 
For  withered  limbs  like  yours  demand  repose." 

"Alas,  to  find  my  crust  of  daily  bread 
I  arn  content ;  no  home  the  singer  knows, 

And  it  so  falls  that,  though  in  street  and  bower 
I've  sung  the  day-dream  out,  sad  and  unfed 

I  stand  before  you  now.     The  generous  light 
That  through  your  open  casement  shone 

Bade  me  come  in  and  freely  name  my  plight. 
Pray  lot  me  cheer  you  with  a  song ;  alone 
You  seem ;  a  pittance  to  the  old  man  thrown 

Will  stay  his  heart  and  make  it  glad  to-night." 

"  Even  as  you  wish,  my  reverend  friend, 
And,  to  begin  with,  here's  your  fee  in  gold, 
But  mind  you,  in  your  song  no  knights  of  old, 
No  love-lorn  wight,  I'm  in  no  mood  for  these : 
Some  weird,  night-born  strain  will  better  please. 

Let  it  smell  of  crumbling  tombs  and  church-yard  mold, 
Or  ring  with  goblin  shrieks  and  wails  of  sprites, 
Or  moan  with  dirge  and  cant  of  priestly  rites 
That  mock  to  shame  life's  cold  and  hopeless  end." 

Then  bent  that  reverend  man  a  courteous  knee 

And  murmured  low :  "  Your  wish  I  can  fulfill ; 
What  these  dim  eyes  have  seen,  and  yet  may  see 


56  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Before  they  close  in  peace  their  heavy  lids 
To  that  last  sleep,  I  sing.     What  is  to  be 

No  mortal  knows ;  occult  is  that  high  Will 
That  ruleth  all.    The  Power  that  speaks  and  bids 

The  mountains  melt,  that  stills  the  angry  sea, 
In  His  own  chosen  time  will  changes  bring." 

With  this  the  singer  swept  the  wiry  maze  ; 
His  HDS,  responding,  these  weird  accents  raise : 

1  "  Ere  the  wake  of  the  morn 
Was  the  pestilence  born ; 

And  his  foul  and  dragon-like  wings  spread  afar, 

As  he  pondered  him  there 

In  the  hot  fetid  air 
Over  ruin  more  wasting  than  famine  or  war! 

2  "  I  looked,  and  a  pinion 
Had  claimed  as  dominion 

The  sea  and  the  isles  and  the  salt-scented  gale. 

Quickly  turned  from  the  sea, 

Like  the  wind  flieth  he, 
Till  his  pall  he  had  cast  over  earth's  favored  vale ! 

3  "  The  sun  seemed  to  die 
In  his  path  in  the  sky, 

And  wildness  and  terror  filled  city  and  lane ; 
The  hot  tear  of  sorrow 
Was  quenched  ere  the  morrow, 

And  iJio.dead  were  interred  by  the  moon's  silent  wane! 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  57 

4  "A  low,  ceaseless  wail 
For  the  smite  of  the  vale 

Rose  mournfully,  ringing  from  river  to  sea, 
And  the  nations  in  dread 
Watched  the  plague's  wasting  tread, 

Impotent  to  stay,  but  praying  the  end  might  be. 

5  "  Then  away  slow  it  crept, 
As  the  fierce  cloud  is  swept 

From  the  land  when  war's  wild  alarums  are  o'er, 
And  a  remnant  returned 
Where  its  madness  had  burned, 

But  the  flower  of  the  valley  returned  nevermore !  " 

The  song  was  done ;  as  though  he  fain  would  read 
The  singer's  thoughts  and  motives  ill  ascribe, 

The  student  stood,  but  quickly  thus  instead : 
"Ah,  thou  hast  well  and  duly  earned  thy  bribe  ! 

Go,  therefore,  now  and  find  what  most  you  need — 
Some  wholesome  food  and  wine — then  with  the  tribe 

Of  Morpheus  blest,  seek  thou  the  toiler's  meed." 

The  singer  hence  the  student  left  alone, 

Assayed  once  more  to  guide  the  magic  steel, 
But  languor  named  the  fiery  brain  its  own, 

And  bold  designs  that  logic  sought  to  seal 
Went  fading  into  dreams  and  phantasies. 

"Aha ! "  he  cried,  "  my  friends  too  quickly  steal 
My  sense  and  touch  with  velvet  sleep  my  eyes ! 

Decreed,  I  must  my  task  lay  by  and  snatch 
From  toil  an  hour  of  rest,  although  the  prize 


58  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Ambition  holds  demands  of  all  despatch  ; 
And  he  who  would  the  wreath  of  laurels  wear 

Must  comfort,  ease,  and  slumber  sacrifice. 
Before  the  earliest  rays  of  dawn  appear, 

With  rested  limbs  and  quiet  nerves  I'll  rise 
And  thus  my  state  will  much  the  theme  reveal." 

The  brazen  clock,  held  firm  and  safe  on  high 

By  that  grave  tufted  Sire  of  all  the  years, 
Its  gilded  hand  the  lonely  hour  brought  nigh. 

The  dial's  tale  was  read :  as  one  who  hears 
The  measured  waves  of  oce'an  pulsing  by 

And  sits  in  dreamy  mood,  nor  recks  nor  stirs 
Till  beats  the  tide  his  chosen  seat  around, 

So  sat  the  student,  while  the  waves  of  time 
Echoed  along  his  soul  and  sleep  profound, 

Like  rising  seas,  closed  o'er  the  outer  man. 
Slow  rolled  the  heavy  hours  till  twice  around 

Its  measured  course  the  tireless  index  ran ; 
The  dying  hour  unloosed  the  clanging  chime 

And  thrilled  the  sleeper's  hot  and  dreamy  brain. 

Startled,  he  woke  with  sudden,  stifled  cry 

And  bounded  from  the  cushioned  seat  amain, 
Smote  through  the  air,  as  fiends  he  would  defy ; 

Then  sorely  mocked  his  fears  with  cold  upbraid 
And  murmured  :  "  Sleep  is  peaceful  now  no  more ; 

Such  dreams  and  visions,  mingling  light  and  shader 
Yet  most,  alas !  of  shade,  wove  in  my  brain, 

That  shattered  loom  of  thought !     But  ere  they  fade- 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  59 

I  must  their  order  seize.     Portend  they  do, 

If  ever  dreams  portend,  some  evil  sore. 
Let's  see,  the  land  was  fair — two  woes  it  knew ; 

Not  so — there  came  a  darker  scene  before! 
So — yes!  I  have  it  now,  the  darkness  grew, 

Dim  horrors  rose  and  night  shut  out  the  view! 

"  I  must  at  once  this  vision  strange  unfold. 

Is  it  some  grim  chimera  of  the  night, 
Disclosure  of  that  world  I  am  so  bold 

As  to  deny?  or  vision  meant  to  fright 
And  drive  me  into  faith  in  gods  and  spooks  ? 

If  that  be  so  I  gladly  make  the  fight ; 
Eebellion  is  my  flag.     I  learn  from  books 

That  dreams  are  baseless  things,  the  idle  fruit 
Of  chance  concern,  the  freaks  of  heavy  brains. 

I  well  believe  it  so,  and  this  'twould  suit 
To  trace  to  that  old  singer's  cursed  strains 

Wherein  he  wailed  of  death ;  but  here  of  late 
I  am  a  coward  grown  and  look  for  evil ; 

If  further  creed  did  not  eventuate, 
I  should,  from  sheer  constraint,  admit  the  devil. 

I  have  a  thought,  I'll  act  it  out  at  once ; 
There  is  old  De  Erl  who  boasts  clairvoyance, 

To  test  his  arts  I'll  be  this  night  a  dunce ; 
The  feat,  I  ween,  will  cost  me  small  annoyance 

And  respite  give  from  thought.     The  place  is  near ; 
'Tis  only  four,  and  Stygian  darkness  reigns. 

I  can  with  ease  disguise  my  face  ;  I'll  wear 
This  cloak,  so  none,  except  at  greatest  pains, 


60  RVPEBT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Could  tell  whether  'twere  man  or  womankind  ; 
I'll  hawk  this  reticule  as  further  blind, 
So  those  who  see  me  by  the  wizard's  light, 
Will  say  I  seek  a  patient  in  the  night." 

An  easy  journey  through  the  starlit  street 
His  footsteps  brought  to  where  abruptly  meet 
The  stony  pave  and  river's  sloping  brink. 
Here  moss-clad  oaks  and  dark  magnolias  drink 
The  misty  air  and  drag  their  pendant  boughs 
Along  the  crumbling  cliff.     E'en  when  glows 
"With  scorching  flame  the  noonday's  sun,  a  shade, 
Like  that  which  filled  the  Labyrinthic  glade, 
Mantles  the  slope  down  to  the  river's  edge 
And  flings  itself  along  a  terraced  ledge, 
Midway  between  the  cliff  and  upper  world. 
In  umbrage  hid,  like  shapeless  boulder  hurled 
From  some  primeval  rift  or  igneous  trap, 
A  gray  adobe,  cringing,  holds  this  lap 
Of  flood-disputed  earth — a  fitting  place 
To  shelter  cunning  deeds  and  hide  the  face 
Made  gross  by  sordid  thoughts  and  selfish  lore. 
Therein  from  imremembered  days  before 
Dwelt  old  De  Erl,  the  wizard  known  of  all 
Through  dark  repute,  who  from  his  cloister  wall 
Was  seldom  seen  to  stray. 

Him,  burdened  sore, 

The  student  unannounced  now  stood  before, 
Who  rising,  surpliced  full  in  textiles  rare 
And  decked  with  emblem  gauds  and  jewels  fail-, 


EUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  61 

In  gracious  wise, received  his  youthful  guest 
And  bade  him  freely  name  his  mild  request : 
"  Great  honor  'tis  to  serve  so  fair  a  cause 
As  that  I  fondly  ween,  which  hither  draws 
Your  obvious  haste.     "Tis  granted  unto  few 
Such  secrets  to  divine,  but  wisdom  true 
Is  justified  of  all  her  faithful  ones 
(The  boastful  proud  are  not  of  wisdom's  sons). 
A  mother  fond  and  doting  she,  her  love 
Is  kept  much  as  we  seek  to  win  and  prove 
All  other  preference  high ;  she  must  be  served 
With  filial  warmth  and  passion  unreserved. 
Full  threescore  years  I  thus  have  sought  to  fill 
Her  every  charge  and  meet  her  regal  will. 
The  stars  I  know  and  tell  their  occult  law  ; 
The  human  senses  own  my  power ;  I  draw 
All  secrets  forth  from  envious  fate, 
And  point  the  soul  besieged  to  better  state." 

The  student  heard  confounded  and  amazed, 

Such  bold  unstaid  pretense  his  reason  dazed 

And  stirred  the  bubbling  hotness  of  his  brain, 

Till  evil  visions  in  perverted  train 

Floated  before  his  sight  and,  madness  fed, 

Into  his  eyeballs  each  an  arrow  sped. 

But  soon  recovering  thought  and  equipoise 

He  thus  rejoined :  "  Unless  too  much  annoys 

The  theme,  explain,  I  pray,  why  thus  attired 

And  at  such  hour?     Whence  have  you  thus  acquired 


62  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

So  rare  an  art  that  slumber  rules  you  not, 
Nor  dreams  disturb  ?     Thrice  enviable  lot !  " 

"  No  art  is  that ;  I  sleep  when  others  wake ; 
The  heavy-hearted  most  themselves  betake 
For  comfort  from  my  lips  'twixt  day  and  day ; 
The  spirits,  too,  most  aid  when  night  holds  sway, 
And  dearer  far  to  me  than  sunshine's  glow 
Are  night  and  yonder  darksome  river's  flow, 
When  wintry  shades,  like  grim  and  fabled  Thor, 
Walk  down  its  liquid  path.     The  ceaseless  war 
Of  midnight  torrents  dashing  past  the  base 
Of  that  dark  cliff,  transcends  the  songs  that  chase 
With  ravishment  of  light  and  all  sweet  sounds 
The  car  of  day  beyond  the  crimson  bounds 
Of  sunset  worlds.     But  this  obtrudes  the  way  ; 
Unfold  your  wish,  I  pray,  without  delay." 

"  In  me  thou  seest  one  whose  soul  has  known 
This  night  a  weary  journey  through  a  land 

Of  changing  scenes  ;  a  fear  now  weighs  me  down, 
I  pray  you  tell  me  why ;  open,  expand 

My  sight  to  see  and  know  the  hidden  cause. 
If  thou  be  what  thou  claimest,  to  command 

Were  easy  task.     The  wild  capricious  laws 
Of  mind  should  yield  their  service  unto  thee, 
Since  of  such  knowledge  thou  hast  mastery." 

"  Thou  asketh  much,  yet  may'st  thy  wish  obtain 
By  spirits'  help,  and  these  I  may  retain. 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  63 

This  table  oft  has  shown  enchantment  pure  ; 

Herewith  'tis  mine  departed  ghosts  to  lure, 

And  call  with  certain  arts  the  saints  from  heaven ; 

These  will  thy  secret  thoughts,  if  they  be  given, 

Link  one  by  one  in  wisdom's  magic  chain 

Until  it  pierce  the  future's  wide  domain : 

Sun  cannot  shine  through  wall  or  pitchy  cloud ; 

No  ghost  walks  from  the  tomb  without  its  shroud ; 

Stars,  shadows,  dreams  and  of  the  mind  a  stint, 

Suffice  my  art — now  of  your  wish  the  faintest  hint." 

<(Alas,  no  comfort  bideth  here !  I  seek 

What  you  by  cunning  would  extort :  a  dream 
Disturbed  my  sleep — 'tis  gone — to  have  you  speak 

Its  essence,  show  its  end  and  firmly  seam 
Its  parts  I  came.     But  folly's  price  is  paid, 

And  as  my  reason  warned,  your  arts  are  shams, 
Like  other  juggling  priests',  and  I  have  laid 

Your  ghosts  ;  but  know,  though  twenty  drachms 
Less  one,  of  mad  nepenthe  fire  my  brain, 

I  see  and  kindly  take  your  studied  pain." 

"With  this  he  turned  and  left  the  juggler's  door, 
And  soon  at  home  was  seated  as  before, 
Seeking  to  drown  his  troubled  thoughts  in  work, 
But  naught  he  touched  but  proved  a  heavy  irk. 
u  No  rest,  no  respite  from  this  dream,"  he  sighed, 
"  Nor  can  I  tell  its  order,  or  decide 
Whether  to  let  it  do  its  work  and  die, 
Or  seek  a  further  meaning  to  descry. 


64  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Ah!  here's  a  ray  of  hope:  when  but  a  child 

I  oft  observed  the  farmer's  wife  who  dressed 
Our  dairy's  store  (a  gentle  soul  and  mild, 

And  full  of  guileless  superstitions  pressed), 
"When  troubled  what  to  do  or  left  in  doubt 

As  to  the  right  of  aught  in  act  or  creed, 
Take  up  a  well-worn  Bible,  gaze  about 

In  thought  and  then  at  random  ope  and  read ; 
And  if,  perchance,  the  phrase,  '  It  came  to  pass,' 

Should  meet  her  eyes,  for  good  or  ill  decreed, 
Forthwith  'twas  so,  nor  dared  a  soul  trespass 

The  law.     Here  lies  that  Book  ;  I  sometimes  read 
To  prove  it  false,  but  if  it  have  one  word 
To  soothe  my  fear,  it  shall  with  joy  be  heard." 

"With  trembling  hands  he  oped  the  sacred  Book, 
And  caught  the  page  with  quick  and  searching  look ; 
Amazed  he  read  :  "And  it  shall  come  to  pass  " — 
O  magic  sign,  flashed  through  prophetic  glass ! 
"When  destined  years  have  purged  with  crucial  fire 
A  nation's  life  and  God  has  hid  his  ire, 
"When  lengthening  shades  portend  the  peaceful  night, 
In  that  mild  evening  time  "  it  shall  be  light ! " 

As  sweep  the  first  soft  winds  of  coming  spring 
Through  winter  wasted  meads,  and  passing  fling 
A  faint  perfume,  from  Southern  bowers  stole, 
Along  the  darkling  hedge  and  wooded  knoll, 
So  through  the  student's  inner  sense  there  broke 
Sweet  memories  of  his  golden  days,  and  spoke 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  65 

Of  perfumed  haunts,  hard  by  the  paths  of  love, 
Where  dulcet  voices  bade  his  soul  approve 
The  nobler  joys  of  life.     Though  faint  they  came, 
They  hushed  to  calm  the  siren  voice  of  fame. 

'Tis  love  transmutes  the  thorny  crown  to  gold ; 
How  brief  soe'er  its  spell  or  passioned  hold, 
It  fetters  ill,  bids  weak  imprisoned  hope 
Once  more  attempt  its  grated  doom  and  cope, 
New  panoplied,  with  fate.     Brief,  like  the  cup 
Of  April  clouds,  love's  chalice  holden  up 
Baptized  his  spirit's  grief,  till  moved  by  straint 
Of  unseen  power,  he  rose  and  lisping  faint 
Between  his  parted  lips,  he  swore  an  oath, 
An  awful  oath,  to  ban  his  curse.     As  loath 
To  let  its  accents  die,  lest  purpose  fail, 
He  held  the  words  till  seemed  his  breath  to  wail. 
5 


CANTO  FOURTH, 


i. 

rrtHE  earliest  rays  of  dawn  gleamed  on  the  east, 
j.     And  Love's  white  planet  paled  and  died  before 
The  glow  of  young  Aurora,  whose  warm  breast 

Gave  nature  joy.     Dark  ships,  with  sail  and  oar 

Of  gold,  that  Argonautic  wonders  bore 
Stood  slowly  out  from  day's  dim  rest 

Into  the  dusky  sky,  that  isle  and  shore 
Of  magic  cloudland  filled — alas !  that  best 
Of  nature's  glowing  charms  should  find  man  still  unblest. 

Faint  from  the  quay,  where  man  and  driven  beast 
Groaned  through  the  day,  came  hum  of  early  toil, 

And  cry  of  those  whom  cruel  want  oppressed  ; 
The  outcast,  filled  with  shame  of  night's  despoil, 
Shrunk  into  coverts  dark  and  deeper  toil 

Of  hell's  device,  to  hide  the  soul  beneath 
Its  curse,  its  vileness  under  that  more  vile ; 

Self-stung,  like  vipers,  tasting  of  a  death 

That  guilty  fear  saith  will  not  end  with  mortal  breath. 

II. 

With  thoughts  alternate,  swaying  as  before, 
Sat  Eupert  Wise.     A  rap  without  now  drew 
(66) 


KUPEBT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  67 

Him  quickly  forth :  "  Ho  there !  who  storms  my  door  ?  " 

"A  son  of  jEsculapius,  chilled  with  dew." 
He  oped,  and  lo !  the  form  of  Jean  Pasteur. 

"Good  dawning,  Doctor!     Enter;  health  to  you!' 
"And  health  to  you  and  honors  many  more ; 

A  patient  well  beyond  the  town  has  lain 
In  wavering  state.     I  tarried  over  night 

To  watch  his  pulse  and  'leviate  his  pain. 
In  passing  near,  your  very  brilliant  light 

And,  as  I  thought,  a  troubled  voice  within 

Caused  me  to  fear  you  might  be  ill.     The  sin 
Of  passing  by  in  doubt  would  heavier  fall 

Than  that  which  risks  the  rousing  one  from  sleep 
Even  at  this  hour,  for  rest  the  choice  of  all." 

"  In  truth,  I  am  not  well,"  said  "Wise,  "  I  keep 
My  work  in  hand,  yet  find  each  added  call 

Must  lack  because  of  slowly  ebbing  strength. 
Of  late,  I  get  no  rest  in  sleep ;  my  frame 

Thrills  like  a  tensioned  lute-string,  and  at  length, 
Unless  I  get  relief  or  seek  repose,  must  fail — 

Vain  hope  the  one ;  the  other  voids  my  aim." 

Pasteur  in  silence  heard,  but  breathed  aside : 
"  The  wine-cup,  0  that  ever  saddest  tale  I 

With  soul  enslaved,  what  boots  the  smile  of  fame? 

What's  sense  of  present  worth  or  learning's  pride 
Without  that  nobler  hope  to  light  the  vale  ?  " 

"  My  dream !  my  dream ! "  cried  Wise,  with  nervous  start, 
"  I  had  a  fearful  dream  that,  palling,  fled 


68  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Like  lowering  clouds  that  angry  lightnings  part, 
And   left   my   mind  with  ragged  racks  of  madness 
strewed. 

To  call  it  back  I  toiled,  but  vain  my  art ; 

Now  all  returns ;  by  chance  I  catch  the  thread, 

And  though  to  heed  such  things  would  ill  beseem 
Our  better  minds,  yet,  on  my  troubled  head, 
The  thing  suggests  a  curious  and  perplexing  dread. 

Thus  ran  my  thoughts  and  thus  proceeds  the  dream : 

THE  pKEAM. 

"Alone  within  a  charnel-house  I  walked, 

Whose  ample  dome  seemed  as  the  heavens  outspread ; 
The  constant  shades  that  filled  the  awful  place 

Were  somber  'twixt  the  gloaming  and  the  dread 
Of  deepest  night,  so  that  my  eyes  might  trace 

The  aerie  outlines  of  the  forms  that  stalked, 
Like  sullen  sentries,  through  the  silence  there. 

My  footfalls  echoed  on  the  crusted  floor, 
As  when  one  treads  alone  deserted  streets, 

Or  summer  waves  break  on  the  sandy  shore ; 
Even  now  my  warm  blood  back  retreats 

To  think  what  reeking  foulness  filled  the  air  ; 
My  heart  grew  faint  and  sick,  I  tottered,  reeled 

And  straight  must  needs  have  fallen,  prone  and  dead  ; 
But  one  who  seemed  to  mortal  men  allied 

Sustained  with  stalwart  arm  my  sinking  head 
And  to  my  nostrils  odorous  herbs  applied. 

Half  borne,  half  forced  by  hands  the  gloom  concealed, 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  69 

I  moved  along  those  dim  sepulchral  halls, 

Then  slowly  down  a  wide  and  gradual  stair; 
Not  long  even  twilight  blessed  my  aching  balls, 

But  black  Tartarean  night  and  wintry  air 
Engulfed  my  frame.     Upon  my  ear  there  fell 

Beseeching  cries  that  sank  to  sobbing  tones, 
Like  wintry  winds  that  sigh  through  ice-mailed  pines. 

As  down  we  moved,  still  deeper  swelled  those  moans 
Till  all  that  waste  of  dark  abysmal  mines 

Echoed  with  more  than  woes  of  Christian's  hell. 

"  Kissed  by  that  chill,  that  dread  and  rayless  night, 

My  fevered  brow  grew  cool,  my  strength  returned, 
And  with  it  came  a  haunting,  voiceless  fear. 

I   gasped    and    clutched  my   speechless   guide,   who 

spurned 
My  vise-like  grip  as  manhood  spurns  a  tear ; 

My  soul  was  stirred,  and  in  its  puny  might 
Stood  forth  and  through  my  parched  lips  cried  out: 

'  "Whoe'er  thou  art,  and  what,  to  me  means  naught, 
Yet  thou  hast  led  me  hither,  and  I  brave 

Thy  deepest  dungeon  and  thy  darkest  thought ; 
Lead  toward  thy  extreme  wish,  or  fiend  or  man, 

Though  to  that  blazoned  pit  thy  hidden  plan, 
Unshrinking  hence  my  willing  feet  attend, 

That  truth  to  fix  earth's  sons  have  vainly  sought. 

u  'Ah,  mortal,'  spake  my  guide,  '  thou  dost  not  well 
So  much  in  wrath  and  madness  to  declaim, 

Thou  wanderest  not  in  dungeon  or  in  hell, 

Ay,  thou  hast  sought  my  mysteries  and  my  name. 


70  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

My  name  is  called  the  Past,  and  yon  lone  hall 

"Which  late  you  trod,  the  Sepulcher  of  Time ; 
Those  aerie  forms  are  Centuries,  Ages,  all, 

Those  poisonous  damps,  that  foul  and  reeking  slime, 
That  life  assault  and  spirit  sense  appall, 

Rise  from  the  tombs  of  avarice,  hate,  and  crime, 
And  crumbling  empires  in  their  destined  fall 

Heap  up  their  shame  and  feed  the  noxious  clime ; 
This  yawning  gulf,  in  ebon  darkness  veiled, 

Unpierced  by  sight,  by  mortal  unexplored, 
Is  called  on  earth  the  abyss  tof  human  woe. 

Hither  eterne  are  brought  and  deeply  stored 
The  griefs  of  all  the  years  that  mortals  know, 

Reckoning  since  man  o'er  nature's  waste  prevailed. 

" '  These  piercing  cries,  these  wild  and  dirge-like  moans, 

Are  borne  from  lands  where  war's  grim  form  hath  rose, 
From  cities  smit  with  sword  and  famine  cursed ; 

Thebes,  Troja,  Carthage,  all  have  sent  their  woes ; 
Yea,  Christian  years,  with  history  sad  reversed, 

From  Acre's  gates  to  Khyber's  blood-stained  snows, 
Have  made  these  depths  resound  with  more  than  mortal 
groans ; 

Nor  wars  alone  on  heathen  heads  exhaust, 
But  in  the  name  of  that  sweet  Christ  who  died, 

And  dying  sceptered  love,  zealots  have  tossed 
To  shame  and  cruel  death  their  kind.     To  hide 

Their  infamy  and  feed  their  monstrous  lust, 
Emperors  and  kings  accusing  earth  have  dyed 

With  guiltless  blood ;  hence  these  ascending  groans ! 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  71 

And  war's  twin  sister,  direst  pestilence, 

Hath  fed  with  agonies  of  blighted  homes 
A  mad  and  Styx-like  stream,  that  coursing  down 

Its  horrid  path  into  this  darkness  comes. 
Thus  hast  thou  seen  the  sable  midnight  frown 

That  hides  the  ages  dead.     Their  fetid  tomb 
Has  sicked  thy  soul;  and  rising  moans  that  drown 

All  cheerful  thought,  and  name  time's  certain  doom, 
Have  filled  thine  ears  ;  from  these  much  may  be  known, 

And  thou  may'st  read  the  future's  testaments. 

"  '  In  Mizraim's  land,  the  tyrant  kings  of  eld, 

Mummied  and  known  through  strange-wrought  hiero- 


Who  that  predestined  shepherd  race  compelled 

In  bondage  sore  what  years  the  ecliptic  shifts 
Full  thrice  three  hundred  times  its  blazing  field, 

Build  ed  beneath  the  desert's  sandy  rifts 
Wide  wondering  halls,  high-domed  and  ceiled 

With  stones  granitic  from  old  Nilus's  gifts  ; 
Neath  pyramidal  heaps  anon  concealed, 

With  yearnings  raised,  and  time  that  lifts 
Its  light  on  all,  hath  scarce  their  sites  revealed  ; 

Still  through  their  waste  the  gloom  of  mystery  sifts, 
Yague  dreams  of  what  is  on  thy  sense  annealed. 

"  '  These  be  the  immemorial  woes  of  man, 
Ever  renewed.  But  thou,  or  ere  thou  rise 

To  drink  again  the  genial  day,  shalt  scan 

The  source  of  one  mad  wave  that  woe  supplies 


72  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

To  this  black  gulf,  surpassing  all.     Not  so 

In  long  forgotten  years ;  a,  thermal  rill, 
Dropping  along  the  pitchy  rocks  below, 

But  swollen  now  and  hot  with  lava  tides 
Of  mortal  and  immortal  griefs,  leaping 

Like  those  red  tongues  along  Vesuvius'  sides ; 
The  Amazon  were  but  a  nameless  thing 

Beside  its  liquid  leagues.     Deem  not  unwise 
The  past  since  ever  thou  hast  prayed  to  know 

The  secret  springs  of  mortal  miseries — 
This  shalt  thou  see  and  trace,  companioned  so.' 

"  Upward  we  moved  counter  to  those  first  steps, 

And  stood,  methinks,  upon  a  massive  tower, 
But  darkness  as*  before.     As  when  one  sweeps 

With  straining  eyes  at  midnight's  central  hour 
The  wintry  sky  for  one  pale  star  to  guide, 

So  swept  my  sight  that  nether  gloom ;  but  vain 
The  task,  save  that  I  saw  upon  the  side, 

That  seemed  the  west  thereof,  the  faintest  stain 
Of  crimson,  spreading  like  the  first  cold  gleam 

Of  Borealis  on  the  northern  skies, 
Or  waking  in  the  mind  of  other  dream 

When  from  the  nightmare's  horrid  chill  we  rise." 

" '  That,'  spake  my  guide,  '  marks  where  the  living  day 
Begins  its  course ;  thither  our  passage  bends.' 

Swinging  a  ponderous  door,  he  led  the  way 
Along  an  open  vale  whose  slope  descends 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMAXCE.  73 

With  gentle  sweep  toward  a  stream,  whose  waves 

Roared  like  a  thousand  maddened  fiends  at  war; 
The  mountains  trembled  overhead,  like  knaves 

Before  the  judgment-seat,  their  ceaseless  jar 
Making  the  dead  air  quiver  like  a  snared  bird. 

Onward  we  moved  with  slow  and  steady  pace 
Through  ever  lessening  night,  and  still  was  heard 

The  thunderous  sound  of  waves,  but  less  apace 
Its  volume  grew,  as  lesser  grew  the  tide. 

The  quivering  air  was  still,  the  mountains  sank 
To  gentle  hills,  and  round  on  every  side 

"Were  pleasant  vales,  embowered  with  vines.     I  drank 
The  breath  of  morning  in  uncertain  light, 

And  owned  the  smell  of  vintage  ripe  and  sounds 
Of  revelers  and  stringed  lyres. 

"  To  right 
My  guide  turned  quickly,  and  we  pressed  the  bounds 

Of  that  fierce  river,  whose  unmeasured  length, 
Our  weary  feet  had  tried,  and  now  in  twain 

It  parted,  flowing  in  unequal  strength  ; 
The  lesser  tide  welled  from  the  vintage  plain, 

The  greater  came  from  marish  gloom  and  fell, 
Through  pitchy  banks  beneath  the  rayless  night 

Of  hemlock  shades ;  its  black  and  lang'rous  swell, 
Fat  with  the  reeking  lees  and  oozy  death 

That  dropped  from  still-house  bins  and  brewing  vaults 
Of  one  black  "Wizard,  seated  underneath 

A  mountain  call  the  Mount  of  Rest — but  false 
The  name — drinking  from  golden  chalice  human  tears, 

And  feasting  night  and  day  on  childhood's  flesh, 


74  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Compelling  those  who  till  the  vales,  through  fears 

And  magic  deeds  and  threat  of  wizard  leash 
To  waste  their  wealth  for  his  voracious  lust — 
I  saw,  and  with  my  guide  the  scene  discussed. 

."As  on  a  cloud  my  form  seemed  lifted  up 

And  home  along  the  liquid,  yielding  air, 
Keeping  the  tenor  of  the  valley's  slope. 

What  sweet  forgetfulness  of  pain  and  care 
Possessed  me  then !  though  all  in  fancy's  scope, 
And  brief;  for  now  the  abyss,  the  vale  were  gone ;. 
My  feet  a  goodly  mountain  rested  on, 
And  lo !  from  out  the  nether  night  a  dawn 
That,  breaking,  brought  celestial  splendors  forth ; 
From  east  to  west,  from  south  to  north, 
The  slender  shafts  of  morning  sped, 
And  Phoebus  up  his  azure  pathway  led 
A  host  of  glories,  shouting  as  they  went. 
Young  Spring  had  spread  her  emerald  tent 
O'er  all  the  hills  and  plains  below ; 
A  silvery  brightness  touched  the  flow 
Of  distant  streams  and  threading  rills ; 
While  incense,  such  as  sylvan  censers  fills, 

Perfumed  the  kiss  of  every  soft-mouthed  breeze. 
With  rapture  thrilled,  entranced  I  stood 
As  westward  rolled  the  rising  flood 
Of  amber  sunshine,  wave  on  wave  afar, 
Where,  like  the  beams  of  morning's  amorous  star, 

The  dew-drops  glistened  on  the  trees. 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  75 

"  Day  died,  and  with  a  fiery  plunge  the  sun 
Dropped  through  a  haze  behind  the  level  west, 

Trailing  new  splendors  in  his  wake  ; 
Day  dawned,  and  as  the  light  looked  o'er  the  crest 

Of  eastern  hills,  I  saw  the  plains  awake  ; 
The  virgin  task  of  Spring  was  done 

And  motherhood  was  on  the  fields  that  spake 
With  other  voice  and  clothed  in  other  hue ; 

Summer  had  come,  and  waving  corn 
Stood  where  but  late  the  rank  grass  grew, 

And  through  the  mild  and  balmy  morn 
I  saw  the  glint  of  spires,  the  curling  blue 

That  told  where  grange  and  growing  village  stood ; 

Yet  still  primeval  calm  was  seen  to  brood 
O'er  half  the  world  that  fruitful  summer  knew. 

"  'Twas  eve  again,  and  night  came  on,  and  day 

Eeturned  when  round  his  path  the  Titan  rode, 
And  then  I  heard  an  unseen  Presence  say : 

'  Look  forth  again  ;  behold  the  years  have  strode 
Beyond  thy  ken  ! '     I  looked,  and  autumn  lay 

In  wealth  of  golden  glory  at  my  feet ; 
Paled  all  the  fabled  dreams  of  old  Cathay 

Before  that  world  with  every  good  replete. 
I  saw  rich  cities  with  their  clustering  fanes 

And  stately  towers  rise  through  the,  morning  haze, 
While  far  as  sight  pursued  the  level  plains 

Was  still  unrolled  the  pageants'  flash  and  bhwo ; 
Hard  by  their  walls  great  rivers  poured  along 


76  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Or  swept  in  silent  majesty  their  tide 
Through  fertile  vales  where,  stirred  by  labor's  song, 

The  millions  called  with  easy  toil  and  pride 
The  harvest  forth  of  fleecy  wealth  and  golden  corn. 

Laden  with  stores  and  gifts  from  every  clime, 
With  offerings  from  the  sacred  gates  of  morn, 

From  lands  that  knew  the  happy  youth  of  time 
The  argosies  of  trade  were  on  their  bosoms  borne. 

"Anon  the  sky  grew  dark,  and,  pealing  far, 

Deep  thunders  smote  the  general  soul  with  dread ; 
I  saw  the  race  rise  up  for  glorious  war 

And  shake  the  hills  with  pomp  of  martial  tread, 
When  notes  of  trump  and  drum  swelled  on  the  air. 

The  lords  of  spreading  fields,  palatial  seats, 
And  liveried  trains  went  forth — a  knightl}'  band ! 

Thrice  cruel  war  when  man  his  kindred  meets  J 
"Twas  so — and  kindred  blood  dyed  all  the  land, 

Till  in  tumultous  rout  the  weaker  hurled, 
With  gory  hands,  the  stronger  legions  back 

And  shook  with  awful  force  the  listening  world ; 
But  breaking  thunders  in  their  burning  track 

With  gathered  bolts  returned  and  burst  anew 
With  fury  multiplied ;  the  mountains  shook, 

The  swollen  streams  ran  crimson  to  the  sea, 
And  all  the  land  put  on  a  drear  and  ghastly  look ; 

The  fields  were  waste  and  bare ;  while  tongues  of  fire 
Licked  up  the  pride  that  late  had  made  delight. 

Meanwhile  a  nation's  hope  must  needs  expire ; 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  77 

The  flickering  taper  burned  with  fitful  light, 

And  then  in  one  great  gust  of  war  was  lost. 
Hark !  in  that  night  what  heavy  chains  fall  off 

Two  races  in  the  conquered  land — the  slave 
And  him  who  held  !     Truth  unadorned  is  truth  enough ! 

I  saw  the  last  of  that  chivalrous  host 
Throw  down  the  broken  reed  of  hope  and  crave 

To  die  with  those  more  blessed ;  in  mournings  deep 
They  sat  amid  the  ruins  of  their  land  ; 

But  not  for  long  did  they  in  sorrow  steep 
Their  warrior  souls,  but  soon  with  righteous  hand 

Swept  down  the  puny  tyrants  of  the  day 
And  swore  for  freedom's  latest  smile  to  keep 

Their  rescued  homes — freedom  their  ancient  stay! 
And  now  with  peace  there  came  again  repose, 

As  comes  a  calm  when  Boreas'  reign  is  o'er; 
Yea,  and  a  beauty  in  the  new  land  rose 

That  shamed  the  tales  of  Aiden's  fairy  lore, 
Dimmed  all  the  glory  of  the  old  and  strove, 

Sun-like,  with  hatred  wheresoe'er  it  bore, 
Till  fell  on  all  the  radiant  light  of  love. 

"Again  the  Presence  cried  :  '  One  woe  is  past ; 

Another  darkly  falls  ;  part  of  thy  dream 
Has  been,  and  part  shall  shortly  be;  the  last 

Is  kindred  to  the  first :  divine  them  as  they  seem. 
Look  forth !     I  looked,  and  lo !  where  virgin  peace 

Had  widely  spread  a  white  and  sheltering  wing 
O'er  ripening  fields  and  city's  fair  increase 


78  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

There  crept,  with  tigress  tread,  a  treacherous  thing 
Whose  stealthy  touch  outrivaled  war's  red  hand, 

For,  Herod-like,  it  spared  not  tender  years. 
A  Memphian  wail  went  ringing  through  the  land, 

A  cry  that  echoed  death  and  all  its  fears ; 
The  plague,  with  brazen  hand,  was  everywhere, 

And  stalwart  men  in  madness  prayed  for  frost 
When  summer's  heat  turned  hope  to  blank  despair. 

They  prayed,  and  then,  as  reckoning  folly's  cost, 
They  cursed  their  God  and  faithless  died,  and  none 
Might  pity  or  remember  them ;  each  one 
Thought  only  of  himself  and  of  his  own. 

"And  then,  methought,  ere  slumbering  dawn  awoke, 

The  heavens  gave  frost ;  the  while  the  shrill  north  wind 
That  drave  along  the  level  plain  and  shook 

The  pearl-bespangled  trees  shrieked  like  a  fiend. 
The  moon,  declining  toward  her  quarter  next  the  last, 
Sat  on  a  heap  of  lurid  clouds  and  cast 
A  pale  and  death-like  gleam  o'er  all  the  scene, 

And  here  and  there  a  star  would  faintly  glow 
And  then  sink  back  into  the  night  unseen, 

Like  eyes  that  strive  to  keep  the  death-sleep  off, 
Yet  less  each  time  of  vital  essence  show ; 

Thus  in  its  blessings  nature  seemed  to  scoff 
At  man's  deep  misery  and  to  mock  his  woe. 

"  I  sat  to  watch  the  multitudes  that  passed. 
Some  came  with  shouts  of  reverent  joy  to  kiss 
The  hem  of  that  white  robe  and  lingering  taste, 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  79 

In  open  fields  and  on  the  mountain-tops,  their  bliss ; 

Others  with  grateful  tears  bedewed  the  way 
And  blessed  the  hand  that  sent  the  gracious  boon 

To  re-establish  in  her  rightful  sway 
Happiness  which,  like  a  dove  that,  soon 

As  o'er  her  home  the  eagle's  shadow  glides, 
Flies  swiftly  to  her  covert  and  abides 

Till  all  her  trembling  fears  are  past,  had  flown, 
But  now  returned  to  bless  and  keep  her  own. 

The  mighty  temples  of  the  land  were  filled 
With  thankful  worshipers,  whose  reverent  tones 

Mingled  in  one  loud  symphony  and  thrilled 
The  general  heart  with  praise,  and  orisons 

Arose  from  nature's  every  vocal  power. 

"  I  saw  a  mother,  weeping  as  she  came ; 

Palo  was  the  sunken  cheek  where  beauty's  flower 
Had  blushed  in  girlhood's  fairer  day;  her  frame 

"Was  bowed  and  trembled  on  her  knotty  staff, 
Like  autumn's  seared  and  lately  widowed  leaf. 

She  knelt  and  kissed  the  hoar-frost  on  the  ground, 
As  the  poor  faithful  dog  might  kiss  the  hand 

That  lays  the  heavy  blow ;  yet  was  her  wound 
Not  healed,  but  rather  had  its  fever  fanned 

To  wild  delirium.     Thus  aloud  she  spoke, 
Or  rather  wailed,  for  pangs  of  sharp  despair 

Slew  woman's  faith  and  doubled  sorrow's  stroke: 

" '  O  faithless  one,  why  hast  thou  thus  delayed  ? 
Why  cam'st  thou  not  in  early  autumn  fair, 


80  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Ere  death  had  on  my  tender  beauty  preyed 

And  borne  my  golden  treasures  hence  ?     Went  first 
The  orphaned  nestlings  of  my  eldest  born, 

The  beauteous  girl  that  bore  my  image  erst ; 
But  there  was  still  a  prop — a  single  stay — 

The  younger  of  my  twain,  the  noble  boy 
On  whom  I  leaned,  who  filled  my  widowed  day 

With  peace  and  all  my  nights  with  dreams  of  joy. 
But  now  his  brow  is  fevered  unto  death ; 

He  knows  me  not,  nor  even  speaks  my  name ; 
His  sunken  eyes,  his  hot  and  bated  breath, 

Burn  through  my  soul  with  fierce  and  torturous  flame. 
And  he  must  die  !  must  die  !     My  boy  !  my  boy ! 

Why  hast  thou  thus  delayed?     This  fatal  morn 
Robs  me  of  my  last  dream  of  earthly  joy 

And  plants  in  this  old  withered  heart  a  thorn 
Whose  ranklings  hand  of  death  alone  can  end. 

Come,  death ;  thou  art  a  dear  and  wished  for  friend/ 

"A  low  funereal  sound  rose  to  my  ear, 

And  high  along  the  mountain's  sloping  side 
I  saw  four  sable  forms,  bearing  a  bier, 

White  decked  as  ever  lily  in  its  pride, 
Toward  the  wooing  silence  of  a  wood ; 

Whereat,  descending  slowly,  far  behind 
I  followed  till  the  moving  pageant  stood 

Beneath  the  boughs,  low  whispering  to  the  wind, 
Of  century-gnarled  oaks  festooned  with  moss, 

That  hung  like  drooping  banners  o'er  the  dead. 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  81 

Nearer,  anon,  I  drew  beneath  a  cross 

Crumbling  with  waste  of  time  and  overspread 
With  lichens  and  the  tendriled  parasite, 

Where  those  four  sable  forms  their  trust  did  place 
Upon  the  fresh  brown  earth,  breathing  no  rite, 

But  mute  did  turn  and  down  the  mount  retrace 
With  measured  march  their  steps,  leaving  to  me 

The  silence  of  the  place  and  that  white  hearse, 
Unhonored  and  unsepulchered. 

"  I  see 
E'en  now  that  ghostly  sight,  not  ghostly  then, 

But  soothing  like  a  dream  my  inmost  soul. 
Ay,  did  I  dream?     The  wild  flower's  modest  sheen 

Varied  the  green  of  many  a  mound  and  knoll 
That  hid  the  sacred  dust.     The  trailing  vines, 

Jasmine  and  cypress,  round  each  towering  bole 
Wrought  flowery  capitals  surpassing  those 

Of  old  that  guarded  Corinth's  proudest  shrines ; 
Moreover,  on  my  sense  perfume  of  rose 

And  breath  of  all  rare  blooms  exotic  stole ; 
While  music  faint,  far  off"  and  undefined, 

Yet  sweet  as  voice  of  love,  was  on  the  air ; 
Two  doves,  winging  that  freedom  unconfined, 

Staid  in  their  flight  and  perched  above  the  hearse, 
Their  plumage  shamed  beside  the  whiteness  there. 

Ne'er  seemed  the  tomb  so  calm,  so  void  of  fears, 
So  much  to  be  desired  as  seemed  it  then ; 

I  longed,  e'en  prayed,  to  die  and  lie  beside 
That  spotless  guest  of  death.     Madness  of  men, 
6 


82  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Desire  for  other  state,  o'erbore  the  pride 
Of  school  and  skeptic  faith. 

"  Long  time  I  stood, 
While  reasons  that  my  reason  knew  not  of 

Wrought  in  the  dark  arena  of  my  mood, 
Veering  a  season  toward  belief;  to  scoff 

My  doubts  forgot;  and  then  a  time  it  seemed 
To  have  my  wish  of  death  was  granted  me ; 

But  all  things  ran  as  ever  when  I  dreamed, 
I  could  not  die,  yet  was  I  not  left  free 

To  choose  my  former  slate  of  life. 

"Fate  moved; 
I  lifted  from  the  face  of  that  still  dead 

The  white  veil's  folds.     Well-nigh  that  rashness  proved 
My  end;  the  face  was  fair  as  ever  shed 

Love  luster  on  the  world;  who  had  not  loved 
In  life  had  had  no  soul  for  beauty's  self! 

A  sight  was  heaven,  yet,  in  a  moment,  hell 
It  flung  through  all  the  empire  of  my  soul. 

Trembled  the  solid  mount  with  earthquake  swell; 
The  air  grew  hot  as  at  the  middle  pole; 

The  pendent  moss  became  all  living  flame 
And  every  idle  leaf  became  a  devil's  tongue, 

Hissing  with  fiendish  glee  a  childish  name 
Of  innocence,  unspoken  since  my  life  was  young. 

I  had  no  power  to  speak  nor  strength  to  fly 
More  than  the  chiseled  stones  that  told  the  dead; 

A  thousand  years  it  seemed  were  passing  by, 


RUPERT  WISE!   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  83 

What  time  I  stood  wrapped  in  that  blazon  dread, 

But  strength  returned,  and  then  I  fled,  but  vain 
Was  flight ;  those  hissing  tongues  pursued  me  still, 

Cursing,  I  know  not  why,  with  nameless  pain. 
Parted  the  earthquake's  mumbling  lips ;  the  hill 

Yawned  to  its  everlasting  base ;  I  leaped 
Into  its  jaws  with  smell  of  fire  scath 

On  my  robes,  like  they  to  Zoar  fled,  when  swept 
Jehovah  Admah's  vale  with  fiery  wrath. 

I  heard  the  riven  rocks  close  o'er  my  head ; 
Still  hurtling  down,  through  voiceless  depths  I  fell, 
Happy  to  hide  me  in  the  deepest  hell ; 

But  in  that  central  world's  mid-air  I  woke ; 
The  clammy  death-sweat  on  my  forehead  stood 
And  spent  my  pulse. 

"What  madness  have  I  spoke? 
Adjure  me  that  I  be  but  flesh  and  blood  !  " 


CANTO  FIFTH. 


i. 

QEVEN  times,  less  one,  the  sun  had  passed  below 
^     The  leaden  west,  hard  on  the  mystic  point 
Where  cross  the  circles  in  the  equal  flow 

Of  day  and  night.     Seven  times  the  sheeny  glint 

Of  Luna's  sickle,  mowing  without  stint 
The  star-beams,  filled  the  fields  of  upper  blue, 

While  some  who  saw  at  eve  its  blood-red  tint, 
Deemed  it  the  scythe  a  viewless  chariot  drew, 
Fate  driven  the  while  its  path  of  ruin  to  pursue. 

Wild  terror  swept  the  city  then ;  the  air 

Moonlit,  and  vap'rous  from  the  river's  breath, 

Quivered  with  sighs  and  accents  of  despair. 
As  though  he  stood  in  shape,  that  monster  death, 
And  cried  each  soul  forthwith  should  fall  beneath 

His  dreaded  hand ,  the  people  trembled  all, 

For  hour  by  hour  there  gained  a  whispered  breath 

That  for  six  days  within  the  city's  wall 

The  plague  had  wrought — hoAV  dire  the  stroke  that  soon 
must  fall! 

The  populace  surged  madly  to  and  fro, 

Their  pallid  faces  'neath  the  wavering  light 
(84) 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  85 

Rivaled  the  white  foam  on  the  murky  flow 
Of  great  Missouri,  swollen  from  the  height 
Of  far  Montana's  mountains,  snow  bedight. 

Some  filled  the  night  with  muttered  cursings,  loud 
Blaspheming  that  omninc  Name  whose  might 

Staid  not  the  plague ;  and  some  were  speechless  cowed, 

But  the  many  feared  and  prayed,  putting  trust  ia  God. 

II. 

"What  means  this  madness?"  cried  a  swarthy  wight 
Fresh  from  the  labors  of  the  forge,  "  a  sight 

To  make  one  think  of  those  wild  tumults  seen 

When  Federal  cannon  knit  their  flames  between 
These  hills  and  yonder  stars.     To  what  intent, 
Good  friend,  is  all  this  hurry,  whither  bent 

This  surging  crowd?"  he  asked,  addressing  one, 

A  toiler  like  himself,  who,  still  as  stone, 
With  deep  reflective  purpose  stood  apart 
From  that  mad  human  tide. 

"  Why,  man,  what  art 

Is  this  you  boast,"  was  held  in  stern  reply ; 
"Wouldst  mock  a  public  fear,  or  thus  decry 

The  deep  concern  men  feel  for  those  they  love, 

Or  are  your  ears  so  dull  as  to  approve 
No  sound  like  that  which  fills  the  air?     '  Tis  known 
The  fever  cowers  in  the  lower  town ; 

A  hundred  cases  came  to  light  since  eight ; 
Nor  can  there  be  a  doubt  that  all  unknown 


86  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Amid  those  slums  and  haunts  of  vice  the  fate 
Of  quite  as  many  more  is  sealed." 

"Alas! 
I  had  not  dreamed  such  evil  state  obtained ; 

'Tis  but  this  moment  I  essayed  to  pass 
From  toil  to  rest;  yet  have  you  well  complained 
At  speech  that  seemed  somewhat  to  lightness  turned. 

How  entered  in  that  plague,  whose  name  so  late 
"Was  made  the  butt  of  learned  jest  and  feigned 

Therein  hobgoblin  dread  ?    Well  done,  to  wait 
The  fatal  hour  before  they  raise  a  cry ! 

Where  are  our  wise,  the  keepers  of  our  health, 
Who  thus  have  slept  with  death  and  furies  nigh, 

Feasting  their  pride  and  jesting,  while  by  stealth 
This  hellish  minion  took  and  held  the  gate? 

What  does  the  city  do?" 

"  You  greatly  wrong 
Our  public  men,  and  more  especial  those 

Who  watch  the  city's  health ;  for  oft  and  long 
They  counseled  care  within.     Our  outer  foes 

They  fought  at  odds  that  none  may  fairly  rate. 
Thus  comes  this  pi'esent  ill:  'tis  shortly  learned 

An  upward  boat  put  off  its  sickened  mate, 
And  from  that  spark  the  deadly  flame  has  burned. 

What  can  the  city  do  ?     Each  separate  case 
Will  make  its  twenty  in  a  fortnight  more. 

What  shall  we  do,  'twere  better  asked,  to  place 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  87 

Our  lives  in  safety  ?  what  is  there  in  store 

For  those  mad  souls  who  think  to  stand  and  face 
The  baleful  thing?  'tis  but  to  feed  the  flame; 

The  more  that  fly  the  fewer  fate  will  slay. 
One  only  course  our  better  thoughts  can  claim ; 

"We  must  be  gone,  and  that  without  delay. 
To-morrow's  dawn  in  this  grim  seat  of  death 

Shall  find  me  not.     I  wait  no  prophecy 
Of  knowing  ones ;  but  ere  the  poisonous  breath 

Of  night  steal,  thief-like,  through  my  cottage  door 
With  wife  and  little  ones  I  shall  away." 

"  I  share  your  mind,  and  shall  not  question  more, 
Save  that  I  dare  to  bide  the  coming  day." 

Thus  passed  the  eve  of  that  eventful  night. 

Meanwhile  the  town's  physicians,  watchful,  wise, 
And  quick  to  hear  the  call,  sprang  to  the  fight 

Like  soldiers  on  the  field  when  foes  surprise. 
In  council  brief  they  tarry  while,  as  wont, 

Their  senior  speaks:  "No  matter  e'er  hath  called 
Us  forth  so  grave  as  this  we  now  confront ; 

No  darker  shadow  o'er  our  homes  hath  palled; 
Not  when  we  felt  erewhile  Jhe  iron  brunt 
Of  savage  war  seemed  hope  menaced  so  much. 

I  read  our  doom  as  though  'twere  writ  in  lines 
Of  fire  on  yonder  wall,  the  fatal  touch    . 

Is  on  the  air;  but  courage  that  repines 
Unworthy  is  of  noble  trust.     To  say 

"What  shall  be  done  to  light  the  coming  curse 


88  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Is  ours;  to  meet  the  plague  and,  if  we  may, 

His  doings  circumscribe  and  break  his  brazen  force. 
My  mind  is  quickly  to  this  point  advanced : 

That  we  at  once  the  people  recommend, 
At  least  such  as  be  to  it  circumstanced, 

That  straightly  they  do  fly,  and  thus  defend 
The  city's  present  and  its  future  good; 
And  lest  the  order  be  misunderstood, 

And  since  the  case  is  urgent,  brooking  not  delay, 
I  would  that  mounted  heralds,  swift  and  fleet, 

Should  scour  the  city  ere^the  break  of  day, 
And  cry  this  pressing  word  from  street  to  street." 

Thus  closed  the  leader,  when  was  heard  once  more 
The  mild  Acadian  voice  of  Jean  Pasteur : 

"  To  me  it  seems  of  wisdom's  better  part 
That  we  should  lend  ourselves  to  duty's  deeds 

With  partial  care,  nor  all  should  court  the  dart, 
Whilst  few  can  meet  what  cause  the  present  pleads. 

As  for  myself,  being  exempt  from  dread 
By  dint  of  passing  through  a  former  scourge, 

I  offer  here  to  lead  or  to  be  led 

Without  delay  into  the  monster's  lair 
To  give  him  stubborn  battle  and  to  purge, 

If  Heaven  shall  please,  our  city  of  his  doings  there." 

Like  captain,  grown  impatient  with  debate, 
While  alien  feet  profane  his  native  land, 

The  student  Wise  arose  from  where  he  sate 

With  peers,  and  thus  prorogued  the  learned  band : 


RUPERT  WISE',    A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  89 

•"A  prudent  course  bespeaks  itself  to  all ; 

'Tis  honor  moves  to  pluck  the  flower  of  war, 
"To  walk  unflinching  to  the  martyr's  fall; 

And  yet  the  future's  good  requires  we  bar 
Our  more  insane  desires  till  greater  cause 

Shall  call  us  singly  to  the  utmost  strife. 
In  furtherance  of  a  larger  end,  a  pause, 

A  husbanding  of  strength  is  wise,  for  life 
By  life  is  saved.     Let  of  our  number  those 
Who  know  this  yellow  scourge  their  skill  oppose. 
1  go,  who  follows  let  him  follow  close." 

As  when  in  ocean's  dark  and  middle  waste 

There  runs  along  a  vessel's  crowded  ways 
The  dread  olarum  cry  of  fire,  till  haste 

Makes  thought,  in  that  extreme  of  danger's  maze, 
Forgot  its  wiser  self  and  madly  leap 

For  life  into  the  friendless  ocean's  arms, 
So  in  that  hour,  with  haste  and  hurrying  step, 

Moved  by  the  first  dread  sound  of  death  alarms, 
Thousands  poured  forth  into  the  fields  and  wood 

Beyond  the  fated  town,  the  vaulted  sky 
Their  only  roof,  their  only  couch  the  sod — 

Meaning  with  earliest  light  of  dawn  to  fly 
For  refuge  to  the  mountains'  crystal  air. 

The  evening  meal,  untasted,  kept  the  board, 
Guestless  and  cheerless,  while  the  feeble  glow 
Of  unsnuffed  tapers  turned  the  temple  home 

Into  the  semblance  of  a  tomb  new  stored 


90  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

"With  lifeless  clay.     Silence  was  there,  and  gloom 

"Walked  through  the  unshut  doors,  sat  at  the  board, 
And  spread  his  dusky  couch  in  every  room. 

Now  turn  we  from  the  smitten  town  awhile 

To  follow  those  its  children  fled  in  haste, 
Happy  to  find  in  self-imposed  exile, 

'Mid  the  wild  primeval  and  the  waste 
Of  mountain  wolds,  a  refuge  from  the  plague. 

The  risen  sun  pours  floods  of  amber  light 
Along  the  mist,  baptizing  cliff  and  crag 

"With  filtered  beams,  and, where  the  vales  invite, 
"Wasting  a  lavish  warmth ;  weird  fingers  sweep 

The  strawy  crowns  of  immemorial  pines, 
And  through  the  darkling  hills  the  myriad  armies  weep 

The  everlasting  dirge  of  time.     Long  lines 
Of  weary  exiles  move  to  these  wild  strains 

Along  the  narrow  passes  of  the  hills, 
And  thankful  hearts  lift  up  a  psalm  that  gains 

"Upon  that  deep,  sad  voice  of  pines,  and  fills 
The  waste,  like  Israel's  song  by  Egypt's  sea, 

Till  thousands  swell  the  anthem's  loud  amen 
To  lower  notes  of  angel  minstrelsy. 

As  springs  the  leopard  from  some  flaggy  glen 

In  Indie  jungle  to  the  hunter's  path, 
So  from  their  coverts  armed  peasant  bands 

Bound  forth  and  bar  the  way  with  signs  of  wrath, 
Their  long  and  murd'rous  rifles  held  in  hands 

That  knew  a  cunning  half  of  savagery. 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  91 

Awhile  the  startled  exiles  wondering  stood, 

Banning  their  wistful  eyes  between  the  sky 
And  that  gray  rock  and  hoary  wood 

Whence  came  a  rustic  voice  with  these  demands  : 
"  Buck,  fleeing  lepers,  reptiles,  instantly 

.Return,  nor  dare  one  further  pace  to  come ! 
Back  with  your  fevered  bodies  and  your  poisoned  rags ! 

This  side  that  rock  you  die !     Go,  make  your  home 
In  yonder  lordlcss  wild,  or  back  where  drags 

Your  nursling  plague  his  length  through  slimy  streets! 
This,  madmen,  be  our  home,  this  mountain  air 

Is  pure ;  these  pines  distill  life's  healing  sweets, 
And  taint  them  you  shall  not;  doubt  me  and  dare, 

Then  shall  you  see  how  men  become  a  law 
Unto  themselves,  and  how  defend  their  own. 

Our  weapons  you  despise?     If  I  should  draw 
This  silver  bead  against  yon  hill-top  brown, 

Then  woe  the  antlered  roebuck  browsing  there; 
The  soaring  vulture  and  the  screaming  kite 
Essay  in  vain  to  mock  with  heavenward  flight ; 

The  leaden  echoes  climb  the  yielding  air, 
And  bring  the  treach'rous  thief  to  humblest  plight." 

A  shudder  swept  the  list'ning  throng,  as  when 

On  mild  October  eves  at  set  of  sun 
A  sudden  breath  of  winter  touches  men 

With  icy  chill ;  all  felt  that  wrath  to  shun, 
And  fain  had  turned,  but  rugged  steeps  arose 

On  either  side  and  hundreds  pressed  behind. 


92  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Some  pleaded  in  the  name  of  right,  and  chose 

Strong  speech,  but  moved  no  whit  the  rustic  mind. 

A  priest,  who  led  the  remnant  of  his  flock 

From  threatened  death,now  forward  moved  and  spoke 
The  leader  crouching  still  upon  his  rock 

And  glaring  down  with  eyes  that  seemed  to  smoke 
In  wrath.     Thus  railed  the  priest,  with  steadfast  look : 
"  Then  must  we  quickly  perish !     Do  your  work ; 

Our  lives  are  little  worth  at  best.     'Tis  well, 
Perhaps,  they  ended  thus ;  we  sought  to  reach 

These  heights,  as  pilgrims  seek  a  shrine.     'Tis  well, 
Since  hope  is  false,  we  died !     Yet  is  your  heart 

.But  stone  to  hold  such  stern  inhuman  speech ! 
Say,  in  your  home  dwells  there  man's  better  part, 

A  wife,  and  children,  meant  of  God  to  teach 
All  nobleness  of  pity  and  desire 

For  others'  good  ?    Then  view  these  helpless  ones 
That  cry  for  bread.     Know  you  no  passion  higher 

Than  selfish  wish,  nor  honor  that  atones 
For  kindness  costing  aught  ?     The  cooling  draught, 

Ministered  in  love,  to  life's  deep  river  turns 
In  that  fair  clime  of  future  good.     Fate's  shaft 

Is  swift;  its  length  the  taper  quickly  burns ; 
Our  whit'ning  bones  will  turn  your  evil  craft 

To  bitter  use ;  so  shall  these  infants'  cries 
Mingle  some  day  with  those  your  own  shall  make. 

Remember  how  the  Lord  in  judgment  wise 
Brought  evil  for  his  smitten  people's  sake 
Upon  the  lands  of  old,  because  they  said, 


1WPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  93 

'  Ye  shall  not  pass.'     His  hand,  may  chance,  hath  led 

Our  feet  to  these  your  everlasting  hills 
That  you  might  succor  with  strong  charity, 

And  hide  our  little  flocks  from  preying  ills. 
Yet  make  wo  but  the  pilgrims'  rightful  plea, 

A  peaceful  passage  through  this  public  way, 
To  rest  awhile  beneath  these  spreading  trees, 

To  slake  our  thirst  from  yonder  spray, 
And,  if  the  wish  your  better  motives  please, 

We  pray  the  outcasts'  mete  of  staying  bread; 
If  laid  upon  that  rock  you  hold  with  care, 

You  may  depart ;  to-morrow  morn  instead 
A  heap  of  gold  shall  greet  your  eyes,  or  since 

You  fear  a  poisoned  gift,  our  sacred  word 
Shall  be  your  bond  for  such  munificence, 

Till  hope  shall  rift  the  clouds  that  late  have  lowered." 

Short  parley  held  the  leader  with  his  clan, 

And  then  returned  with  rifle's  front  reversed, 
Looking  more  kind  and  more  resembling  man  ; 

Full  stern  his  speech,  though  calmer  than  at  first : 
"  Mark  well,"  he  cried  ;  "  this  will  we  do,  nor  less 

Nor  more:  bread  shall  you  find  hereon,  nor  ask 
We  gold  or  bond  our  kindness  to  redress ; 

This  fountain  and  these  shades  for  comfort  task 
For  one  short  hour,  and  then  with  haste  pass  on ; 
These  hands  of  ours  will  see  our  bidding  done." 

The  peasant  left  to  bring  the  praycd-for  bread, 
The  way-worn  exiles  one  by  one  arrived, 


94  BUPEBT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

A  motley  band.     Proud  dames  and  they  who  led 

The  festive  throngs  of  honor,  when  to  give 
Delight  the  queens  of  fashion  strove,  must  need 

On  equal  footing  with  the  humblest  live 
The  season  of  their  pilgrimage.     The  screed 

Of  family,  recked  of  much  when  fortune  smiles, 
In  shadow  of  the  tomb  none  boast  or  read. 
The  priest  beholding  one  new  come  with  speed, 

Thus  greeted  him:  "I  trust,  good  friend,  the  whiles 
You  fly,  you  hope.     When  quitted  you  the  town?" 

"At  noon  three  days  ago,  and  with  hot  haste 
Both  night  and  day  have  lashed  the  hackneys  on ; 

Now  will  I  rest,  here  pitch  my  tents  and  taste 
The  sweets  of  sleep ;  here  lay  a  burden  down 

That  has  since  that  dread  night  one  week  ago 
Weighed  on  me  sore.     The  babes  are  ill,  and  worn 
The  mother  with  her  vigils  and  suspense." 

"Alas !  it  grieves  me  to  advance  your  woe, 
But  here  we  may  not  dream  of  rest,  but  hence 

Must  go  in  one  short  hour.     Our  presence  here 
Has  roused  the  native  clowns  to  war ;  our  breath 

They  seem  to  fear  will  spread  infection  dire ; 

That  ledge  of  shaly  rock  that  flanks  the  brook 
Is  fortified  with  rustics  armed  for  death, 

If  we  essay  to  pass  j  but  this  they  took, 
That  by  an  hour's  space  we  rest  and  slake 

Our  thirst;  while  on  their  guarded  rock  they  lay 
A  dole  of  bread,  which,  they  retired,  we  take 

And  then  with  hurried  steps  pursue  our  way." 


UUl'ERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  9o 

'"Alas !  'tis  death  before  and  death  behind ! 
Better  to  perish  in  our  homes  and  find 
A  Christian  grave  than  fall  among  these  wilds 
Of  want  and  inhumanity.     Death  builds 
His  wall  on  every  hand;  accursed,  like  Cain, 
"We  rove,  and  men  will  aye  our  suits  disdain." 

Much  pitying  him,  the  holy  man  replied  once  more : 

"  Be  not  so  much  cast  down,  my  son,  I  pray ; 
The  valleys  rich  are  scarce  one  day  before ; 

These  reached  we  shall  find  plenty,  and  withal 
Full  kindly  hearts  and  many  an  open  door ; 

There  may  we  safely  dwell  till  heaven  let  fall 
Its  boon  of  frost,  and  end  our  evil  day. 

But  tell  me,  friend,  since  you  the  latest  left, 
How  fared  thereto  the  wretched  town?  what  pace 

Had  made  the  plague — where  most  his  pathway  cleft, 
"Where  spared  he  most,  where  left  his  deadliest  trace  ?  " 

"A  faithful  tale  would  beggar  human  speech  ; 

The  dead  are  everywhere ;  from  morn  to  noon, 
From  noon  till  eve,  from  eve  till  middle  night, 

The  silent  palls  go  unattended  on, 
Nor  voice  of  prayer,  nor  sound  of  sacred  rite ; 

Even  love,  that  ever  gentle  ministrant, 
Is  robbed  of  power  to  keep  its  holiest  trust. 

The  stalwart  man,  the  helpless  innocent, 
Alike  are  victims  made,  that  lesson  teach 

Old  as  the  tomb,  scarce  hid  in  parent  dust. 
The  marts   are   still  j   the   streets,   once  thronged,  are 
hushed, 


96  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Save  for  the  tread  of  flying  messengers, 
Who,  oft  o'ertook  themselves,  fall  senseless,  flushed 

To  sudden  death  by  fever's  quenchless  fires. 
Unwatched,  unblessed,  the  poor  and  friendless  die ; 

Their  putrid  corses  lade  the  deadly  air 
With  newer  germs  to  spread  contagion  round  ; 

Beside  the  son  the  father  falls ;  from  sheer  despair 
The  mother  by  them  both.     The  priest  is  found 

Dead  by  the  altar,  or  the  sacred  place 
Becomes  the  chamber  of  his  closing  hours. 

The  kindly  simple  minister  of  grace 
Within  the  humblest  cot  that  knows  his  round 

Is  smit,  and  yields  anon  his  mortal  powers. 
The  fearless  son  of  science,  set  to  heal  his  kind, 

Unequal  to  these  cruel  arts  of  death, 
Not  only  fails  for  others'  ills  a  cure  to  find, 

But  falls  himself,  slain  by  his  patient's  poisoned  breath. 
While  thus  the  stealthy  work  goes  hourly  on, 

The  swollen  river  lifts  a  deep  and  dirge-like  moan." 

"  Sad  tidings  hast  thou  multiplied  this  day ! 

(God  stay  the  plague,  else  should  no  flesh  remain !) 
'Tis  well  the  shadow  only  haunts  our  way ; 

Christ  measures  woe  in  love  ;  the  deeper  pain 
Is  hid  through  shortness  of  our  mortal  sight. 

We  may  not  know  our  loss  till  milder  days 
Break  on  our  path  and  touch  of  autumn  smite, 

Through  calms  of  hope,  the  dire  amaze 
That  wrecks  our  sky.     Yet  runs  my  thoughts  on  one 
To  whom  clave  hope,  so  nobly  held  and  done 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  97 

The  task  he  took,  the  first  to  brave  the  dread ; 
1  mean  the  stripling  Wise,  who  elders  led 
To  battle  with  their  fate,  and  fell  straightway 
Stricken  with  fever ;  some  believed  that  day 
Would  end  it.     Know  you,  lies  he  with  the  dead  ? 
For  much  in  prayer  his  name  I  breathe,  between 
A  doubt  and  hope — ripe  honors  may  he  know !  " 

"  I  wist  not ;  yet,  when  as  to  leave  the  town 
I  made,  this  tale  fell  on  my  ears  anon, 
Not  all  unvouched :  Three  days  he  lay  as  dead, 
When  came  a  fair,  frail  girl,  who  well,  'tis  said, 
Has  loved  him  from  her  tender  years ;  and  wise, 
As  well,  it  seemed,  from  those  first  auguries 
Of  youthful  days,  so  fair  his  form  and  face, 
So  rare  his  gifts  of  mind  and  early  grace ; 
But  ere  their  time  for  plighting  bridal  vows, 
Through  force  of  false  and  curious  lore  that  bows 
Assent  to  despot  sense  and  fair  device 
Of  learned  doubt,  he  wandered  far  astray 
From  truth.     Led  by  his  father's  evil  star, 
With  boon  companions  of  the  bowl  he  sank 
Deep  in  the  shadows  of  a  thralling  vice, 
Which  blighted  his  and  that  young  life,  so  near 
A  part  of  his.     She,  faithful  still,  but  frank 
With  fear,  withdrew  upon  her  bridal  day 
The  circlet-sealed  hand ;  with  promise  made, 
If  future  days  should  shed  unclouded  light 
Upon  his  path,  then  would  she  yield  him  trust 
Of  wifely  love.     Late  had  she  sought  to  write 


98  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

New  hope  upon  her  life,  and  in  the  shade 

Of  hills  that  guard  her  mother's  native  vale 

Had  hid  her  burning  heart.     Therefrom  the  wail 

Of  suffering  called  her  to  her  father's  home, 

"Where,  shortly  learning  of  her  lover's  state, 

She  came,  and  by  his  bedside  faithful  sate, 

And  with  such  care  as  wife  or  mother  would, 

Kept  watch ;  but  he,  that  took  nor  rest  nor  food, 

Haved  in  delirium  wild,  calling  one  name, 

And  that  her  own,  as  ne'er  her  love  to  claim 

(So  went  his  rage),  or  see  her  face  again. 

Wildly  he  talked  of  how  by  giant  main 

They  had  been  torn  apart  in  early  years, 

And  she  detained  in  some  far  gloom,  with  tears, 

Entreaties,  prayers,  regarded  not,  and  how 

He  needs  must  go  to  seek  her  and  must  show 

His  love  in  worthy  deeds  and  abstinence, 

And  quickly  would  have  risen,  going  hence, 

But  that  his  nurses  held  him  firmly  down ; 

But  on  the  fourth  day,  being  left  alone 

With  only  her,  he  rose  and  fled  away, 

So  swiftly  fled  that  none  might  mark  or  stay 

His  fleeing  form.     They  mourn  him  dead,  though  none 

Dream  where  or  how. 

"  That  fair  young  creature  soon 
Was  seized  with  fever  equal  his,  and  lies — 
Or  when  I  left  lay — in  death  agonies. 
I  know  no  more,  save  that  her  name  all  breathe 
In  prayer,  and  hold  her  love  as  conquering  death ; 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  99 

And  when  the  wrestling  few  who  serve  the  sick 
Would  to  each  other  courage  speak,  or  prick 
To  some  unselfish  deed  or  task  of  martyr  mien, 
They  but  pronounce  the  name  of  Madeline." 

As  with  a  single  voice,  the  multitude 

Lifted  a  lamentation,  like'  the  cries 

Of  those  who  left  Solyma's  palaces 

To  waste  in  the  Judean  solitude, 

Touched  by  Jehovah's  wrath,  while  they  in  tears 

And  bondage  sore  fulfilled  their  captive  years  : 

"  How  sits  she  desolate,  who  once  beside 

The  monarch  wave  was  peerless,  like  a  bride, 

Receiving  gifts  from  him  whose  watery  arms 

Encircle  her,  as  lover's  clasp  the  charms 

Of  her  new  wed.     Heaven's  blight  is  on  thee  shed, 

Thy  songs  are  hushed,  thy  mirth  and  joy  are  fled." 

"Ah,  miserere! "  moaned  the  robeless  priest; 
"Ah,  miserere!"  sighed  each  burning  breast; 
"Ah,  miserere!"  sounded  toward  the  East; 
"Ah,  miserere! "  echoed  from  the  West. 


GARTO  SIXTH. 


i. 

/TtOKENS  of  nature's  wrath — fire,  hail,  and  storm, 
j.    The  lightning's  brand  lit  from  the  pit  of  hell, 
The  cyclone's  awful  breath — swept  all  the  form 

Of  mount  and  hill,  as  fierce  and  loud  they  fell 
From  heaven's  black-vaulted  roof.     Swell  after  swell 

The  torrents  rolled  along,  and  filled  the  vales 
With  foam  -  flecked   meres.     "Woe  !  woe !  to  those  who 
dwell 

Beside  the  swift-waved  streams !     Woe  to  the  sails 

On  seas  high  lifted  by  the  equinoctial  gales ! 

The  storm  was  overpassed,  and  came  a  calm, 

An  autumn  calm,  to  nature  and  to  man ; 
Transfusion  soft  of  odorous  scents  and  balm 

To  fit  her  beauty,  faded  now  and  wan, 
For  silent  slumber  in  the  grave  by  span 

Of  winter's  chill  and  uncongenial  days. 
A  slow  and  measured  throb  of  music  ran 

Along  the  pulsing  air,  as  when  one  plays 

To  sounds  of  dropping  nuts  and  leaves  the  iv'ry  keys. 

Far  in  the  dim  and  silent  autumn  woods, 

Through  paths  with  spiteful  brambles  overgrown, 
And  deep  and  long  untrodden  wilds,  where  broods 

aotn  


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  101 

The  night-hawk's  mate  and  plaintive  wail  and  moan 
Of  whippoorwill  and  owl  disturb  the  noon — 

So  deep  the  gloom  beneath  those  tangled  boughs — 
Wandered,  with  starless  wish  and  mind  o'erthrown, 

The  student  Wise,  his  darkly  knitted  brows 

And   trembling  frame  bespeaking  pain  and   broken 
vows. 

II. 

"  Dreams,  dreams,  a  mocking  frenzy  murders  thought, 

And  reason's  throne  supplants  With  pallid  fear ; 
The  downy  plumes  of  light  impending  air 

With  mountain  heaviness  compel  me  here ; 
A  giant's  brazen  arm  were  futile  fare 

Against  these  links  a  thralling  fate  hath  wrought. 
Bides  there  indeed  a  twofold  essence  here? 

Or  am  I  but  a  part  of  all  I  see — 
Insensate  brother  of  the  rock,  a  sphere 

Of  action  filling  higher,  yet  less  free, 
Than  yonder  clambering  vine  ?     To  caprice  wrought, 

To  end  of  folly  and  the  base  desire 
Of  some  dread  spirit  reigning  in  this  wild  ? 

And  art  thou,  Solitude,  perfidious  sire 
Of  all  my  woes,  and  hast  thou  hence  beguiled 

My  wandering  steps,  veiling  an  evil  plot, 
To  bind  me  to  the  rock  of  cold  disdain  ? 

Fulfill  that  wish  ;  thou  canst  not  nobler  crown 
Nor  ampler  wealth  confer.     The  Titan's  chain 

My  heritage,  I  ask  no  more  renown, 
Nor  sighs  my  soul  for  pleasures  sweeter  got. 


102          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

"  Somewhat  there  is,  in  truth,  that  men  call  life, 
A  spirit  essence,  flung  from  unknown  heights 

Through  depths  and  darkness  into  fateful  strife 
And  conflict  with  unequal  force,  that  smites 

With  fierce,  disloyal  hand  its  own  defense ; 
That  stays  to  shame  prepense  its  own  delights, 

And  buys  despair  with  mind's  immortal  recompense. 

"  Is  this  with  me  that  being's  primal  morn, 
Cast  from  the  womb  of  silence  at  her  will, 

Or  have  I  palsied  lain  while  tireless  years 

Have  run  their  course,  yet,nathless,  suffering  still? 

There  seems  a  past,  a  past  of  doubts  and  fears, 
But  of  its  changes,  seasons,  naught  is  borne, 

Save  that  I  lived  and  something  lived  beside, 
Or  else  I  saw  myself  move  through  the  light 

And  knew  communion,  while  a  less'ning  tide 
Of  passions,  bosom  born,  returned  delight, 
As  on  yon  lakelet's  face  the  mountain  glories  burn." 

Thus  moved  the  student's  wavering  mind,  the  while 
He  sat  exhausted  on  a  mossy  pile 
Beside  a  sylvan  lake  fed  by  two  brooks 
That  wore  their  channels  into  eddied  nooks ; 
One  sent  from  distant  fenland's  grassy  pride, 
The  other  murmurous  from  the  mountain's  side  ; 
Which,  when  the  errant  breezes  ceased  their  call. 

Intoned  the  harmony  of  falling  leaves. 
These  heard  he  :  as  familiar  voices  fall 

Upon  the  ear  and  reach  the  heart  that  grieves 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  103 

Its  memories  dead,  so  fell  the  liquid  sound 

And  quickened  feelings  that  for  years  had  swound. 

As  in  its  purple  morn  the  soul  rose  up, 

And  drank  again  from  childhood's  dregless  cup, 

Dreamed  over  dreams  that  blessed  the  sinless  hoy, 

And  cried  aloud  the  frenzy  of  its  joy : 

"  Hail,  woodland  melodies,  preludes  of  hope, 
How  swells  my  heart  once  more  to  hold  in  view 

That  goodly  sight,  the  mansion  of  my  sire ; 
The  whitening  fields,  the  meadow's  crown  of  dew, 

The  haunted  hills,  aglow  with  sunset's  fire — 

Alack,  the  shame !  my  life's  unfruitful  scope ; 
Alack,  the  evil  fruits  that  folly  bore ! 

But  I  must  suffer,  since  'tis  so  decreed, 
And  since  'tis  being's  nobler  ends  that  wait 

The  issue  of  my  suffering  state,  and  plead 
Supernal  wish  and  conquering  trust  create, 

I  lowly  bow,  the  scepter  kiss,  the  King  adore.' 

A  shadow,  other  than  the  mountain's,  fell 
Athwart  the  surface  of  the  lake ;  the  dell 
Re-echoed  other  than  the  streamlet's  voice, 
And  in  that  far  secluded  spot  the  noise 
Of  human  footsteps  caught  the  student's  ear. 
When  furtively  he  glanced  and  saw  him  near 
A  hermit  strangely  clad,  with  shaven  head, 
Who  at  the  sight  of  Wise  had  quickly  fled, 
But  that  he  rose,  signaled  desire,  and  cried  : 

"  Stay,  brother — if  that  word  conveys  the  thought 
That  forms  my  wish — kindred,  or  being's  shade, 


104          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

.Return,  abide,  and  be  companion  of  my  care ; 
Here  is  my  rest ;  my  vows  henceforth  are  paid 
Beside  this  gray  and  ancient  rock.     Come,  share 
My  thoughts,  and  cast  with  me  thy  lonely  lot." 

Hereat  the  hermit  staid,  and  thus  replied: 

"  Mortal  thou  art  and  kindred  to  my  sense ; 
'Tis  twenty  years  since  mortal  face  I  dared, 
Yet  will  I  turn ;  thy  frail,  emaciate  form, 
Thy  sunken  eyes,  thy  voice  by  fast  impaired, 
Forbid  my  fears  and  hate  of  man  disarm. 
Speak,  if  I  may  some'  boon  of  good  dispense." 

Wise.  "  'Tis  not  the  body,  but  the  mind  that  cries 
For  food,  for  surcease  from  its  heavy  weight. 

Sit  thou  beside  me  here,  and  enterprise 
An  arduous  task." 

Hermit.  "  But  first,  I  pray,  relate 

Why  driven  so  far  from  human  haunts  ?  why 

In  communion  as  with  morbid  thoughts  and  fears  ? 
Surely  it  is  not  oft  thy  wont  to  fly 

So  far ;  nor  seems  it  me  thy  mind  appears 
In  wonted  force,  for  thine  is  fair  estate." 

Wise.  "  Truly  I  must  be  more  than  what  I  seem, 
But  thought  has  lost  the  golden  key  that  turned 

The  bars  of  fate,  that  faint  soever  gleam 

Of  peace  might  visit  one  self-loathed  and  spurned ; 

But  what  I  feel  or  know — perchance,  I  dream — 
What  matter?  felt  or  dreamed,  'tis  easy  learned." 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  105 

Hermit.  "  Mine  ears  are  thine ;  so  long  since  human  voice 
Their  sense  approved,  and  now  with  hearty  choice 

Wise.  "Ah,  there  bethink  me !  patience,  rest  awhile ! 
Whence  are  we,  hermit  ?  more  than  wont  of  man 
Thou  seemest  wise.     "Whence  ?  whither  ?  whose  at  last  ? 
When,  like  the  summer  winds  or  gust 
Of  winter,  sinks  our  sensuous  breath, 
Hushed  in  the  deep  and  mystic  silences 
Of  those  far  voids  from  whence  alike  they  rose ; 
The  winds  sleep  in  their  sea-girt  caves  again, 
Dirgeless  and  unlamented  by  the  waves 
Whose  tawny,  sun-tried  cheeks  they  wantoned  o'er, 
Until  they  crimsoned  softly  here  and  there 
With  sunset  hues,  or  blanched  beneath  the  glow 
Of  silver  stars.     But  is  there  naught  that  lives 
Remembered  of  the  winds'  wide  errant  course  ? 
Of  sylvan  wilds  or  trellised  garden  bowers  ? 
Of  rattling  fleets  of  reefed  merchant  sails  ? 
Of  dalliance  at  soft  eve  or  luteful  sounds 
At  early  morn  ?  of  lovers  in  their  trysting-place ; 
Or  merry  childhood  on  the  village  green ; 
Or  manhood  everywhere,  in  peace,  in  war?  " 

Hermit.  "Nay,  life  is  not  in  memory  with  the  winds, 
Nor  echoes  through  their  slumb'rous  cavern  homes ; 
Subtler  its  essence  than  the  ether  wave, 
Fleeter  than  fancy,  rises  to  a  higher  rest, 
To  sleep,  to  wait,  to  wander  forth  no  more, 
Until  the  end,  removed  from  earthly  wisdom 


106  EUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

In  the  boundless  reaches  of  the  soul's  hereafter, 
When,  all  things  restored — like  to  its  like, 
And  god-like  to  itself — eternity  its  firm 
And  changeless  order  shall  begin." 

Wise.  "  Where  are  those  dim  ethereal  spaces, 
Where  the  fitful  breath  and  fiery  thought  of  man 
Repose,  abiding  that  eventful  hour?     Science 
Cannot  discern  their  pillared  fastnesses 
Nor  tell  their  vaulted  dome,  nor  yet 
Hath  hinted  that  they  be.     Winging  a  swifter  flight 
Than  condor  of  the  Andes  through  his  realm 
Above  the  waste  of  Chimborazian  snows, 
Thought  goes  upward  through  the  blinding  maze 
Of  planets,  suns,  and  nebulce,  whose  fiery  haze 
Unrolled,  in  fragments,  from  the  everlasting  scroll 
Held  in  the  great  right  hand  of  God, 
When  chaos  kept  the  formless  deeps  below. 
Orb  after  orb  pales  in  its  lengthening  track, 
While  others  dimly  blaze  and  wheel  before, 
And  some,  girt  round  with  many  moons, 
And  others — flaming  suns  themselves — compelling; 
And,  in  their  turn,  compelled  by  other  suns 
As  satellites,  and  each  a  different  sheen, 
Swift  on  ecliptic  marches,  centric  and  concentric, 
Making  a  centuried  day  of  rainbow  light. 
But,  staying  not,  the  vision  plunges  headlong 
Into  sunless,  starless  wastes,  black  with  the  pall 
Of  night,  primeval  night,  only  to  gain. 
When  myriad  million  leagues  are  measured  through,. 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  107 

A  sight  of  white-flecked  skies  in  deeper  wilds — 

Monotony  of  wide  creation's  awful  self ! 

"Where,  then,  bold  wanderer  of  the  night 

And  pathless  fields  of  star-flecked  gloom, 

Where  is  thy  lost  brotherhood,  where  the  place, 

The  far  Valhalla,  of  their  long  retreat  ? 

And  where  the  hostage  of  the  dust 

That  once  compelled  their  stay  with  sweet  restraints?" 

Hermit.  "  That  which  thou  seest  is  but  the  tessled  pave 
And  arched  door-way  of  our  Father's  house; 
Hath  not  the  Power  that  binds  each  planet 
To  its  sun,  and  these  to  nature's  ancient  heart, 
Hath  not  he  scope  to  build  him  otherwhere 
And  otherwise,  beyond  our  sight,  a  spacious  rest  ?  " 

Wise.  "A  handful  of  ground  and  molten  sand, 
Shaped  into  kinship  with  the  visual  sense, 
Stole  wondrous  secrets  from  the  voiceless  night, 
Turned  doubt  to  faith  and  faith  to  doubt, 
And  made  our  lives  seem  less  and  nature  more ; 
And  what  erewhile  appeared  a  creamy  stretch 
Of  white  coast  lines,  along  which  spent 
The  furtherest  waves  of  nature's  starry  sea, 
Before  it  broke  and  fled,  and  in  its  place 
Rolled  still  a  fiery  tide  of  orbed  light ; 
But  spectra  of  those  furthest  discs 
Tell  but  of  kindred  elements,  nor  hint 
Save  of  such  forms  as  mundane  wisdom  knows : 
The  crystal  dust  we  grind  beneath  our  feet 


108          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Is  like  in  kind  the  hissing  lava  streams 

That  course  the  hearts  of  mightiest  suns ; 

And  not  the  tiniest  sphere  of  evening  dew, 

Or  minim  of  the  ether  se*a,  but  sisters 

Those  vast  firmaments,  attenuate,  void, 

Infolding  solar  fires.     What  then  ? 

Shall  spirit  quit  the  ponderous  forms 

And  gross  restraints  of  matter  here, 

But  to  resume  them  otherwhere  ?  or  cast 

One  mold,  and  take  its  flight  but  to  be  clogged, 

Though  nobler  wise,  with  cumbrous  life  again  ?  " 

Hermit.  "  Matter  is  but  mind's  accident;  the  dust 
Hath  been  full  many  thousand  times  alive 
With  different  sense  and  pulse.     They  who, 
Following  the  divine  decree,  lord  o'er  the  earth, 
If  phalanxed  like  an  army  on  its  march, 
Would  reach  well-nigh  the  ecliptic's  blazing  belt; 
While  those  who  have  gone  forth  since  time  began, 
If  marshaled  thus,  would  overlap  Arcturus 
And  the  stretch  of  wild  Centauri's  realm. 
The  foremost  moving  thus, perchance,  might  sight 
The  gates  of  that  fair  city  in  the  wide  beyond. 
If  each  had  borne  his  death-devoted  clay, 
Then  had  there  been  a  waste  and  wreck  of  earth. 
Knowest  thou  matter?  hath  yet  a  human  eye, 
With  aid  of  burnished  glass,  beheld  an  atom  ? 
In  clusters  seen,  yet  not  in  essence  known ; 
Spirit  thou  seest  not  nor  matter  yet  : 
There  resteth  mystery  for  the  wise." 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  109 

Wise.  "  Hermit,  thou  talkest  as  a  god  might  talk ; 
Thy  words  are  wise  and  fair;  I  could  well  think 
We  walked  in  old  Palermo  by  the  sea, 
Or  sat  by  Athen's  walls  in  those  old  days 
When  spake  Aristo's  son  his  deathless  words. 
Go  on ;  though  weak,  I  hear  with  joy." 

Hermit.  "  Nay,  lade  thy  mind  not  now  with  such  high 
theme, 

Nor  bid  me,  man  unlearned  and  recluse,  prate 
Of  things  removed  from  human  sight  and  dream : 

Turn  for  a  time  to  thoughts  of  humbler  state ; 
A  season,  when  thy  wonted  strength  returns, 

We  will  such  lofty  things  attempt.     Now  waits 
Within  my  cot  a  frugal  meal,  and  burns 

A  fagot  fire  upon  the  humble  hearth ; 
A  couch  is  there  of  silken  grass,  and  spread 

With  fabric  of  the  mountain  cougar's  swarth. 
There  thou  shalt  rest  thy  frame  and,  breaking  bread, 

Remain  till  strengthened  limbs  may  bear  thee  hence ; 
Or,  seeming  good,  a  longer  season  stay, 

And  taste  the  freedom  of  the  wild  and  fence 
The  heart  from  earthly  care,  or  make  it  aye ; 

And  he  who  faileth  first  shall  be  to  him 
Who  thrives  a  care  to  lay  him  in  the  dust 

And  shed  a  tear,  chanting  a  lowly  hymn 
Above  his  grave. 

"  Thy  grief  and  ail,  I  trow, 
Are  of  the  heart :  ah !  there  are  songs  within 


110  RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

The  compass  of  these  wilds  and  winds  that  blow, 
Bringing  a  solace  to  the  heart  that  sin — 

The  raven  torturer,  sin — has  sorely  torn. 
Amid  these  sylvan  shades,  as  in  the  vale 

'Twixt  Tigris  and  the  Gihon's  wave,  at  morn, 
At  eve,  God  walks ;  and  when  the  leaves  do  fail, 

As  now,  and  gorgeous  carpets  clothe  the  hill 
And  woven  arras  of  the  sunlight  drops 

Around  the  woods,  then  choiring  spirits  fill 
The  leafless  groves  and,  in  the  hallowed  stops 

Of  organ  winds,  glide  softly  through  the  light." 

With  troubled,  yearning  heart  and  upward  gaze, 
Like  sailors  through  the  misty  morn  or  night, 

Searching  for  beacon  o'er  the  harbor  place, 
The  student  through  his  darkly  clouded  mind 

Strove  for  the  light  of  that  fair-limned  peace ; 

But  ever  backward  turned,  made  thrice  more  blind 
By  what  he  felt ;  till  that  faint  memories 

Of  what  his  unshod  feet  had  hither  moved, 

Broke  on  his  brain,  when  with  weak  voice  he  cried : 

"  O  dweller  in  the  waste,  wise  art  thou  proved 

And  happy  in  thy  lot !     Since  thou  didst  hide 
First  in  this  lonely  wild,  say  hast  thou  seen 

A  maiden  bound  or  wailing  'neath  the  pines, 
With  tresses  like  the  chestnut  dawn  and  sheen 

Of  lily  crocus  on  her  cheek  ?     O  shines 
The  sun  and  comes  again  the  dewy  eve, 

And  I  no  trace  of  my  dear  love  descry! 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  Ill 

May  be,  I  vainly  hope  or,  wandering,  leave 

The  truer  path ;  then  tell  me,  has  thine  eye, 
In  lowly  vale  where  bending  willows  weave 

A  woof  of  green  before  the  quiv'ring  sky, 
Beheld  a  bleeding  heart,  pierced  with  a  thorn, 

And  ruddier  than  its  kind?     That  is  my  love's ; 
There  she  has  died,  and  Dryad  sprites  have  borne 

Her  to  their  sisterhood,  'mid  beechen  groves 
And  aspens  whispering  low ;  and  near  it  saw'st 

Thou  but  a  broken  stone,  like  chrysolite 
Wrenched  from  the  parent  mass  by  glacier's  frost 

And  worn  beneath  its  icy  heel  ?     O  sight 
For  mortal  eye !  that  stone  is  my  hard  heart, 

Its  blessing  that  it  lies  beside  her  own. 
"When  shall  this  life's  dark  prison  walls  dispart 

And  let  me  forth — to  death,  to  life  ?    Atone  ? 
For  what?  by  what?  for  this  foul  deed  of  mine, 

Whereby  I  slew  two  hearts  ?     Methinks  I  hear, 
As  from  a  far-off  day  and  from  a  shrine 

Hard  by  a  murm'rous  fount,  one  sound  that  mocked 
And  mocks  me  still :  'Atone !  the  blood !  the  blood ! ' 

Ah  me !  it  seems  the  sable  nurse  that  rocked 
My  dameless  infant  years  chanted  the  same 

So  long  ago ! 

"  O,  hermit,  is  it  true  ? 
Is  this  that  mount  ?    Ay,  babbler,  tell  thy  name, 

And  let  the  curse  descend.     Too  late  for  you ! " 

The  hermit  answered  not,  seeing  his  thought 
Wandered  in  mental  night,  and  that  he  seemed 


112          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Distressed  with  hunger  and  a  thirst  that  wrought, 
Its  desert  dryness  on  his  bloodless  lips, 

Parching  the  feeble  words,  and  so  he  deemed 
It  better  to  repair  at  once  with  this, 

His  charge,  into  the  cot,  that  distant  seemed 
Hung  like  an  eagle's  aerie  in  the  slips 

Of  weathered  rocks — the  mountain's  wasting  heart. 

So  he  the  student  lift,  nor  moved  amiss 

A  muscle  in  the  act,  and  with  the  art 
And  strength  of  mountaineer  bore  him  aloft, 

And  laid  him  on  his  couch,  and,  brewing  tea 
And  toasting  barley  bread,  grown  in  the  croft 

About  the  cot,  he  had  the  joy  to  see 
His  guest  partake,  look  up,  and  calmly  smile ; 

Then,  settling  on  the  mossy  couch,  fall  soon 
Into  a  slumber  gentle,  soft.     Meanwhile, 

The  hermit  watched  and  wondered  of  this  boon, 
Not  all  delight,  yet  not  displeasing  quite, 

Which  fortune  charged  him  with.     The  sense 
Of  loneliness  so  long  had  made  its  night 

"Within  that  this  became  his  recompense, 
That  all  the  world  of  waste  and  rock,  of  wood 
And  stream  and  cloud,  yielded  him  brotherhood. 

And  who  was  he,  that  hermit  of  the  waste 

Who  twenty  years  had  shunned  the  face  of  man, 

And  talked  with  winds  and  clouds,  and  lightly  chased 
The  elfin  sprites  of  fancy  through  the  wan 

Of  autumn  twilight,  and  had  built  a  shrine 
Beneath  the  nightly  stars  to  worship  God  ? 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  113 

Who  heard  him  walking,  in  the  eve,  and  shine 
Of  morning  suns,  through  goodly  vales ;  who  trod 

Himself  the  ways  of  prophet,  sage  and  great, 
Of  ancient  days,  abiding  thus  in  nature's  sight? 

What  blight  destroyed  his  early  flower  ?  what  fate 
Impelled  him  hence,  a  loveless,  friendless  wight  ? 

A  melancholy,  like  the  mist  that  time 

Spreads  o'er  a  marish  glen  and  lifteth  not, 
The  child  of  some  swift  youthful  crime, 

Through  sore  remorse,  had  made  him  choose  this  lot  i 
That  crime,  his  name  and  all  that  told 

His  past — a  mystery,  like  himself.     He  spent 
In  simple  toils  and  musings  manifold 

On  nature's  goodly  frame  the  days'  content — 
At  first  through  fear  of  man,  at  last  through  choice, 

And  so  he  dwelt,  and  older  grew  and  wise 
In  nature's  lore  and  thoughts  of  God,  whose  voice 
He  heard  in  three  great  books — nature,  himself, 

And  that  which  came  by  fire.     Then  what  surprise 
That,  dwelling  thus  so  near  the  heart,  the  self, 

Of  nature,  he  should  catch  her  words,  and  turn 
Them  into  grateful  songs?  for  oft  beneath 

The  star-bedizened  vault  he  walked,  with  yearn 
Of  holy  passion  in  his  soul  and  wreath 

Of  starlight  round  his  head,  chanting  low, 
Sweet  anthems — epics  of  the  wood  and  strains 

According  with  the  harping  pines  below. 

Thus,  when  the  student  slept,  and  with  her  trains 
Still  night  was  passing  through  the  cloudless  sky, 


114          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Touched  with  a  kindred  sorrow  for  the  youth, 

He  wandered  forth,  deeming  the  Healer  nigh, 
And  to  the  mountain  pine  murmured  his  ruth : 

1  O  dark-browed  pine ! 

So  like  the  shade  of  a  grim  old  god 
Uprising  against  the  starlit  blue, 

And  art  thou  a  god, 

And  I  but  a  clod  ? 
Thou  weepest  much,  and  I  weep  too, 

O  dark-browed  pine ! 

2  O  dark -browed  pine ! 

1  must  weep  tears,  and  tears  that  are  hot — 
Hot  from  a  heart  that  ever  hath  fears. 

Ah,  my  tears  are  hot! 

But  tears  thou  hast  not ; 
Aye,  weeping,  thou  never  hadst  tears, 

O  dark-browed  pine ! 

3  O  dark-browed  pine ! 

Thou  hast  a  faith — a  faith  of  thine  own — 
Or  else  thou  hadst  quit  the  mountain  rock, 

In  storms  that  have  blown 

With  a  wild  winter  moan, 
Else  hadst  thou  reeled  with  the  thunder  s  shock, 

O  dark-browed  pine ! 

4  O  dark-browed  pine  ! 

And  thou  hast  a  hope ;  thy  somber  shade 
The  lightning  shall  kiss  with  lover's  thrill, 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  115 

Nor  ever  that  shade 
Know  the  woodman's  blade ; 
Thine  are  the  years  of  a  century  still, 
O  dark-browed  pine ! 

5  O  dark-browed  pine ! 

I  hear  thee  oft  in  the  deeper  night, 
Sobbing  aloud  in  a  dismal  strain, 

As  never  I  might 

In  that  deeper  night, 
Sobbing  with  all  but  a  human  pain, 

O  dark-browed  pine ! 

6  O  dark-browed  pine! 

Is  it  all  because  thou  hast  no  tears 

That  thou  wail'st  so  with  an  endless  plaint  ? 

Then  half  of  thy  years 

For  the  gift  of  tears, 
Though  thy  years  were  the  years  of  a  saint, 

0  dark-browed  pine ! 

7  O  dark-browed  pine ! 

This  night,  as  never  thou  weptest  yet, 
A  wandering  soul  in  the  valley  dim, 

Though  his  sun  be  set, 

And  the  night-dews  wet 
The  fleeing  sprite — weep  aloud  for  him, 

O  dark-browed  pine ! 


CANTO  SEVENTH. 


i. 

\  TOW  on  the  mountain  stood  the  white-robed  Morn, 

}  ^  And  waved  a  beamy  scepter,  while  was  borne 

Far  through  the  waking  vales  heraldic  notes, 

And  signs  of  her  approaching  car.     As  floats 

The  eagle  upward,  slowly  round  and  round, 

The  mist  went  upward  toward  the  blue  profound 

Of  star-deserted  heaven.     The  pale,  sweet  moon, 

Like  hunter's  horn  at  height  of  sultry  noon 

Suspended  by  the  stream,  hung  in  the  blue 

Below  the  birch-trees'  arching  boughs  that  grew 

Along  the  mountain's  western  slope ;  a  calm, 

A  deep,  soul-soothing  hush,  as  when  a  psalm, 

By  early  worshipers  devoutly  sung, 

Dies  from  a  great  cathedral  and  among 

Its  many  pillared  aisles  broods  voiceless  prayer, 

Hushed  all  the  mount  and  all  the  upper  air. 

II. 

While  thus  the  virgin  day  began  her  course 
Through  cloudless  sky  and  nature's  calm,  perforce 
Of  nature's  sweet  restoring  law,  awoke 
The  student  to  the  light  that  once  more  broke 
(116) 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  117 

Upon  his  soul's  unclouded  sky.     The  shade 
Was  gone;  the  fever's  trace,  the  bane  that  made 
Of  thought  an  aspic's  bite,  were  gone,  and  lo ! 
The  soul  beheld  itself  and  knew  its  woe 
Unshadowed  by  a  dream  ;  and  quickly  read 
A  hasting  doom,  and  heard  not  far  the  tread 
Of  baffled  death,  stealing,  like  tigress  on  the  prey 
Chance  struck  by  hunter's  dart  and  fallen  in  the  way. 
Moveless  he  lay,  while  trembling  sunbeams  kissed 
His  bloodless  lips,  sweet  emblems  they  of  love, 
Eternal,  mystic  light,  that  leaping  from  above 
Struggled  to  force  his  soul  with  mercy's  ray 
And  kiss  its  darkest  stains  of  guilt  away. 

Seated  beside  the  youth,  the  hermit  saw 
His  mind  reclaim  its  throne,  and  felt  the  awe 
Of  fast  approaching  death.     In  kindly  tone 
He  asked  that  dying  wish  be  said  or  shown, 
When  in  a  clear  though  slowly  failing  voice 
The  answer  came :  "  Hermit,  I  much  rejoice 
That  thus  my  end  draws  nigh ;  kind  fate  reserves, 
I  trow,  some  good  that  lucid  hour  is  mine 
In  which  to  die ;  and  yet  how  much  deserves 
My  soul  a  darker  end ;  but  heaven  or  fate 
Or  else,  however  named,  is  kind.     I  wait 
To  know  the  utmost  of  the  truth  divine 
Or  darkness  of  the  night  that  mortals  dread. 
But  hear  my  tale,  and  then,  if  thou  hast  read 


118          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

In  nature's  goodly  lore  or  elsewhere  found 
A  solace  or  a  cure,  ere  that  dim  bound 
Of  death  I  uass,  speak  to  my  soul  a  hope. 

"What  Summer's  frugal  care  nad  gathered  up 
Autumn  with  lavish  hand  was  strawing  wide, 
And  gloried  in  the  waste,  till  wasteful  pride 
Had  wrecked  and  left  her  sad — November  drear, 
The  mystic  twilight  of  the  fading  year ; 
The  season  night — so  says  the  chronicleer — 
An  infant's  wail  broke  on  the  stilly  hour ; 
A  life — my  life — with  its  dark-fated  dower, 
Woke  to  the  light,  while  hers  who  gave  me  birth 
Went  outward  toward  its  rest — equal  its  worth 
I  fondly  trow,  yet  lost  that  hope  hath  been, 
Left  aye  to  die  in  starless  night  of  sin ; 
Brief  on  me  beamed  a  father's  face  within 
A  spacious  house,  ancestral  home  of  wealth, 
With  lordly  grounds,  oak-girt,  where  love  and  health 
Might  wedded  dwell,  and  bring  forth  fresh  delight 
With  every  changing  hour.     Fair  to  the  sight 
The  grassy  lawns  and  breezy  groves  alive 
With  warbling  birds  and  bees  that  to  their  hive 
Bore  honied  treasures  all  the  day.     Shame  fills 

Mine  eyes  with  tears !  for  then  my  soul  was  free ; 
No  cygnet's  down  was  whiter.     From  the  hills 

That  rose,  like  islands,  in  the  ether  sea, 
Minerva-like,  a  streamlet  burst ;  pure  white 
Its  waters,  sparkling  in  the  liquid  light, 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  119 

Yet  not  more  pure  than  those  white  thoughts  that  erst 

Upon  my  spirit's  forming  vision  burst. 

I  heard  the  thunders  walking  through  the  hills ; 

I  saw  the  panting  clouds  chased  by  the  wind, 
And  saw  the  lightning's  burning  blade  that  stills 

The  heart,  even  as  the  hunter's  bleeds  the  hind, 
Slash  through  its  shaggy  sides,  until  it  bled 
A  torrent  like  the  sea ;  and  then  that  thread 
Of  limpid  water  grew  into  a  tide 

Of  turbid  blackness,  groaning  as  it  passed. 
The  judgment's  thunders — shapes  of  wrath — with  stride 

To  shake  the  mountain-pillared  world,  have  traced 
My  soul ;  the  fiery  brand  hath  parted  quick 
Joint,  marrow,  and  the  secret  life,  and  thick 
Hath  rained  a  scorching  dew — pollution's  shower 
That  choked  the  limpid  wish  to  this  my  fatal  hour. 

"  But  backward  let  me  turn — a  summer  day, 
A  rare  June  day,  or  had  been  such,  dare  say, 

Death  walked  within  the  lordly  house ;  my  sire 
Obeyed,  and  hence  strong  men  bore  to  the  grave 

All  kindred  clay  of  mine,  save  one  not  nigher 
Than  fourth  in  blood.     A  thoughtless  whisper  gave 

My  ears  that  day  a  truth  not  understood, 

Alas !  too  deeply  since,  for  through  his  blood 
Ancestral  came  my  father's  fate — a  curse 
Of  appetite,  that  fed,  grew  ever  worse 
From  sire  to  son  and  bore  him  to  his  doom 
In  middle  life.     Short  while  within  my  home, 
Now  doubly  waste  and  haunted  with  the  gloom 


120          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Of  long  distressed,  I  tarried,  choosing  me 
(Such  course  the  law  permitting  by  decree) 
To  dwell  my  youth  with  him  my  nearest  kin, 
And  so  I  journeyed  toward  the  west,  and  in 
A  home  no  whit  less  proud  in  boast  or  name 
Than  that  I  knew  before  began  to  claim 
An  equal  hope  of  life.     My  early  woe 
Was  soon  dispelled,  for  in  the  ample  show 
Of  love  my  childless  kinsman  made  I  grew 
To  feel  a  higher  joy  than  e'er  I  knew 
In  years  before,  and  else  a  well-spring  burst 
Within  my  life ;  a  fount  of  peace  that  thirst 
Of  unfed  wish  assuaged,  for  hard  against 
My  kinsman's  lordly  lands  another  fenced 
With  equal  pride  and  equal  cheer  dispensed. 

"  So  fell  a  time  in  those  first  days,  when  through 
Adventurous  thought,  chasing  delight  where  grew 
The  hedge-rose  and  the  brown  thrush  made  its  nest, 
I  chanced  to  hear,  in  childhood's  fairy  jest, 
A  little  rippling  laughter  and  a  song 

That  gurgled  softly,  leaping  as  from  tongue 
Of  bird  or  elfin  creature  of  the  field. 
I  stood  in  transports,  tilt  my  sight  revealed 

The  sweetest  wonder  of  my  dreams :  a  maid, 
A  tiny,  elfin  creature  of  the  field, 

Our  neighbor's  eight-year-old,  had  strayed 
Into  the  sunlight  and  the  open  waste 
And,  like  the  summer  warbler,  with  a  taste 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  121 

As  dainty  as  herself,  was  mocking  there 
The  songs  and  laughter  of  the  birds.     O  air 
Of  summers  gone !  O  dreams  of  perished  bliss ! 
O  hopes  deferred !  O  love's  first  balmy  kiss  1 
Return,  return  again ! 

"  Life  grew  apace, 

And  hope  went  upward,  like  the  lark,  to  face 
The  mighty  sun  and  revel  in  his  fires. 
What  happy  days  went  by !  and  with  desires 
And  benedictions  deep  as  life  could  hold 
Grew  that  sweet  maid,  and  she  was  mine.     The  fold 
Of  month  on  month  and  year  on  year,  until 
Our  lives  did  one  fair  book  of  pleasure  fill, 
Made  only  more  our  souls  each  other  seek, 
And  mine  was  lost  in  hers  and  felt  to  speak 
Her  purer  thoughts ;  yet,  as  the  tendriled  vine 
Leans  on  the  oak,  hers  seemed  to  lean  on  mine. 
As  some  lost  deer  in  lonely  forest  wild 
Drinks  from  the  placid  brook,  and  stands  beguiled 

"With  semblance  of  himself  upon  the  wave, 
So  drank  I  from  the  light  of  her  deep  eyes 

And  saw  such  stainless  vision  as  they  gave, 
And  knew  my  nobler  self  in  semblance  rise 

And  float  their  placid  fullness  through. 

"  To  dwell 
In  that  aureate  glow,  with  her  my  sun, 

My  virgin  hope,  far  from  the  raging  hell 
That  woke  my  curse  and  fired  my  blood  too  soon 


122          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

And  scourged  me  down  my  fated  path,  had  wrought 
My  crown  and  made  my  bliss ;  but  kindly  thought 
My  kinsman  moved  to  plan  a  fair  career, 
An  end  whereby  a  goodly  fame  should  rear 
My  fortunes  high ;  and  so  I  made  to  seek 

In  learning's  halls  of  wisdom's  gifts  a  share, 
And  hence  should  go  at  lapse  of  one  short  week. 

"  'Twas  on  an  eve  in  that  soft  season  when 

The  bearded  barley,  ripening,  bows  its  head 
To  sweep  of  sportive  winds ;  the  broad  sun  then, 

Creeping  along  the  silence  crimson  red, 
Had  dipped  its  edge  behind  the  emerald  sea 

Of  forest  glades  beyond  the  river's  bed, 
I  walked  with  Madeline  along  the  lee 
Of  that  brown  waste  of  waving  corn,  and  free 
And  light  our  hearts  as  softest  zephyrs'  breath 
That  stirs  the  fringed  myrtle  in  the  groves 
Faun  held  and  sacred  to  the  restful  gods. 
The  roving  quails  puttered  in  every  heath 
And  bluebirds  in  the  locusts  told  their  loves 

Or  danced  along  the  daisy-tufted  clods. 
Above  us  bent  the  patient,  dewy  heaven, 
Like  tender  mother  in  her  pride ;  two  stars 

Anon,  like  mother  eyes,  looked  on  us  twain  ; 
Her  hand  was  in  my  own,  and  we  had  striven 
To  pierce  the  deep,  sweet  mystery  that  bars 

The  future  from  the  now ;  with  yearn  and  strain 
Of  hope  her  lustrous  eyes  had  sought  the  way 
Adown  which  walked  the  ghost  of  fading  day. 


BUPEET  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  123 

"Vermilion  splendors  burst  a  moment  forth 
And  half  the  evening's  vastness  penciled  o'er, 
Hiding  the  light  of  those  twin  stars  in  fires 
Of  mightier  glow.     Omen  of  goodly  worth 

"We  read  in  such  response  to  love's  desires ; 
And  holy  thoughts  leaped  to  my  lips  and  bore 
Their  transports  through  my  soul,  till  speech  was  dumb. 
Save  in  one  mighty  word,  breathed  till  the  air 
"Was  tremulous  with  passion's  sacred  sound. 
A  quick,  sharp  cry  from  Madeline  made  numb 
My  senses  for  a  time ;  I  could  but  stare, 
Seeing  her  fly  like  doe  before  the  hound, 
Till,  casting  sight  along  the  shadowy  ground, 
I  saw  a  serpent  of  prodigious  size 
With  maddened  hiss  and  fiery,  darting  eyes 
Glide  from  the  rye  and  pass  between  us  twain. 
With  fearful  thought  and  pang  of  inner  pain, 
I  forward  sprang  and  caught  her  to  my  breast 
And  stilled  her  fluttering  heart  with  lover's  zest; 
Yet  liked  I  not  the  shade  that  held  her  brow, 
As  some  fore-fruit  of  ill,  nor  forth  did  go 
With  morrow's  dawn,  when  that  for  four  long  years 
I  took  my  leave. 

"  That  morning  marks  the  line 
'Between  what  I  had  been  and  what  I  am. 
Ah,  could  the  sailor  know  the  maelstrom  stirs 

The  sea  within  his  path,  he  durst  not  quit 
The  land-locked  harbor  for  the  wave  ;  so  mine 
Had  proved  a  happier  fate,  a  nobler  fame, 


124          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

To  walk  in  that  idyllic  dream  and  sit 

In  that  manorial  shade,  knowing  no  blame. 

"An  ancient  classic  seat  beyond  the  sea 

Received  me  to  its  grim  and  ample  walls, 
Where  busted  pride  and  living  fame  purvey 

All  noble  thought,  till  wisdom's  portion  palls 
Through  goodly  store  and  school-man's  lavish  care ; 

Yet  aught,  though  all  I  failed  to  heed  the  cause, 
Weighed  on  me  that  the  form  bore  not  its  share 

Of  vital  truth.     Tomes,  cycles,  barren  laws 

And  endless  reckonings,  doubts,  perchances,  flaws 
And  stresses  of  the  mind,  filled  not  the  soul 

That  early  read  the  volumes  of  the  field 
And  measured  by  the  sunshine  and  the  roll 

Of  boundless  floods  the  problems  of  the  world ; 

That  knew  but  love  as  tutor,  nor  to  yield 
Had  ever  thought  a  tittle  of  its  dream. 

Into  a  semi-Arctic  silence  hurled, 
As  from  a  luteful  land  of  tropic  gleam, 

I  seemed  to  yield,  and  wrought  in  mines 
For  gold  and  gems  and  deemed  me  wise  to  hold 
The  tender  sense  in  awe  of  that  more  bold, 

Which  delved  unfed,  save  on  the  husks  and  rinds 
That  strewed  the  desert  paths  of  Christless  lore. 
But  pleasure  oped  her  gates  and  spread  her  store 

E'en  in  the  desert  world,  and  youth  to  youth, 
In  friendship  bound,  held  up  the  fatal  pledge ; 

Convivial  laughter  and  the  bowl  put  truth, 
If  truth,  indeed,  engaged,  aside  till  edge 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE'.  125 

AVus  off  the  finer  sense,  and  blunt  and  dull 
The  nobler  wish.     Eestraint  was  not,  nor  voice, 

Nor  Orphic  string  the  frenzied  thirst  to  lull 
And  drown  the  sirens'  song — there  was  but  choice 

To  leap  and  die,  seeing  no  Ithic  purpose  bound. 

"  I  felt  a  demon  rousing  in  my  blood; 

A  fiery  hell  was  kindled  in  my  brain, 
And  loud  from  out  the  silence  woke  a  sound, 

A  sound  of  doom,  but  all  too  late ;  the  chain, 
The  heavy  gyves  were  forged  and  sealed ;  I  stood 

A  slave,  as  all  my  sires  had  been,  and  vain 
The  voice ;  for  pleasure  laid  her  balmy  hand 
Upon  my  brow  and  far  my  native  land, 

And  all  dear  things  it  held,  drifted  from  sight. 
At  length  I  woke  in  helpless  pain  and  knew, 

0  God !  I  knew  my  dungeon  and  the  blight 
Of  manhood's  hopes,  and  love  and  mem'ry  threw 

Their  torturing  sweetness  o'er  the  troubled  brain  ; 
The  serpent  hissing  from  the  rye,  the  face 

1  left  with  sadness  wreathed,  slew  me  with  pain 
Of  mad  despair. 

"  I  rose  at  midnight's  hour, 
With  oath  to  live,  and  fled  with  frantic  pace 

Through  olden  lands  and  cities  boasting  dower 
Of  unrecorded  pride ;  beside  all  seas, 

Through  holy  haunts  and  temples  of  the  gods 
Whose  very  names  are  lost,  with  listless  gaze 

And  longing  after  what  I  could  not  say, 


126  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

I  wandered  by  the  space  that  Phoebus  plods 
Three  times  around  his  orb-encircled  way. 

"Rome's  red  palaces,  Arcadia's  misty  hills, 

Old  Gaza  in  the  desert's  heart,  the  waves 
That  lap  the  Ormuz  coast,  where  morning  fills 

Her  wasted  urn,  have  heard  my  sighs,  and  graves 
Of  swarthy  kings  in  Ind  and  Aiden's  groves 

Have  wooed  me  for  a  time  to  think  of  Brahm 
And  happy  rest,  where  Soma's  river  proves  • 

The  solace  of  all  mortal  ills.     The  calm 
Of  Ida's  wood,  the  mount  of  Thessaly, 

Beguiled  me  from  my  bondage  for  a  time ; 
Ay,  I  have  laid  me  down  where  old  rhymes  say 

The  Titan,  doomed  to  expiate  his  crime, 
Three  thousand  years  in  chains  and  torture  lay. 

Caucasus,  on  thy  rocky  sides  I  sate 
And  watched  the  green  light  of  the  meteors  play 

Upon  the  streams  that  feed  the  Euxine's  wave ; 
To  Joppa  turned  and  through  the  valley  gate, 

Esdraelon,  passed  where  Kidron's  waters  lave 
The  mount  of  sacred  name ;  the  wailing-place 

Of  Judah  by  the  ruined  walls  I  pressed, 
And  from  Golgotha's  dark  retreat  did  trace 

The  wrinkled  hills  to  Olivet — but  rest, 
The  golden  boon  of  soul,  found  not,  alas ! 
A  pilgrim  to  all  shrines,  a  worshiper 
At  none,  I  turned  me  toward  my  home  to  face 
My  fate  and  beg  the  love  and  hand  of  her 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  127 

I  dared  not  claim  through  any  worthy  faith, 

Yet  deemed  that  stay,  with  toil  and  student's  lore, 

The  last  that  held  me  hope — 

"  Hermit,  what  saith 

The  feeble  pulse  ?     The  fitful  dream  is  o'er, 
The  time  is  short ;  it  boots  thee  not  to  know 

The  rest,  to  hold  a  withered  spray  of  life 
In  thy  strong  hands.     I  die,  but  quickly  go, 
Ere  thou  hast  laid  me  in  a  grave  below 

Your  mountain  pine,  and  seek,  if  still  in  life, 

This  sad-browed  maid,  this  second  soul  of  mine." 
Then  from  his  hand  he  drew  a  golden  band, 

Studded  with  one  rich  stone,  and  held  it  forth. 
"  Take  this ;  she  will  recall  and  understand 

The  message  that  it  bears,  and  deem  it  worth 
All  riches  of  Golconda's  store — the  last 

Of  all  her  gifts,  when  that  she  dare  not  give, 
Through  deep-wrought  fear,  herself  into  my  arms, 

And  held  me  to  return,  when  hope  should  live 
In  equal  purpose  with  my  wish.     It  charms 

That  hope  from  death,  and,  like  the  Levite's  gems, 
Burns  strangely  bright,  since  heaven  no  more  condenfns. 

"  Nine  leagues  to  westward,  by  the  south,  unless 
My  judgment  errs,  the  city  lies,  war-scarred 

And  wasted  now  by  plague.     There  Madeline, 
An  angel  to  the  poor  (whose  wilderness 
Is  lighter  for  her  face),  by  mercy  starred, 

Waits  with  the  sick — and  she  self-same  maid 


128         RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Of  whom  I  spake.    'To  her,  if  thou  shalt  find, 
Say  that  the  spoiler's  hand  at  last  was  staid ; 

At  evening  time  the  morning's  glory  shined, 
And  that  I  died  with  faith  in  Him  alone 

Who  sees  the  sparrows  fall ;  my  soul  resigned 
To  Him  who  died.     If  that  sweet  blood  atone, 

My  snared  and  trembling  soul  shall  rest  in  peace. 

"  Lo,  now  is  life !  a  vision  sweetly  dawns 

Like  morning  through  the  dome  of  forest-trees 
Of  that  old  story  told  by  thralldom's  tongue 

In  those  fair  days  before  my  shame,  which  frees 
The  soul  while  yet  it  serves ;  a  tale  that  wrung 

Compassion  from  the  grave  and  senseless  stones ; 
But  by  what  law  it  works  these  late  results, 

And  strengthens  every  noble  wish  to  live, 
I  know  not,  but  'tis  so.     I  feel  the  pulse 

Of  ampler  thought  and  warmer  hope  relieve 
The  dull,  insipid  course  that  reason  owns. 

How  should  a  slave  know  this  and  not  my  sire, 
Gifted  with  mind  to  shame  a  golden  age  ? 

How  reached  my  soul  aphelion  of  desire 
To  read  faith's  mystery-lighted  page?" 

The  lids  dropped  on  the  sunken  eyes ;  the  breast 
Was  still,  yet  moved,  anon,  the  pallid  lips. 

"At  even  time,"  they  faintly  said,  "  light — rest ! 
At  even  time,  at  even  time !  "     As  slips 

A  star  behind  the  gloom  of  midnight  clouds, 
The  spirit  seemed  to  slip  into  the  realm 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  129 

Of  shades,  leaving  the  hermit  in  his  moods, 
Recking  of  spirit  worlds,  as  in  a  dream. 

All  day  he  toiled,  till  eve,  to  make  a  grave, 

And  when  the  stars  shone  brightly  forth  above, 
Xot  turning  toward  the  death-kept  couch,  and  save 

To  break  his  day-long  fast,  staid  not  through  love 
Of  him  now  dead  and  her  who  loved  too  well. 

So  all  night  long  by  Bear  and  Dipper's  aid 
He  journeyed  westward  by  the  south.     Through  fell 

And  gorge,  by  farm  and  lonely  cot,  he  made 
His  swerveless  way.     The  watch-dog's  midnight  bark-,. 

The  owlet's  hoot  or  snort  of  startled  hind, 

Were  all  the  sounds  he  heard,  save  that  the  wind 
With  thin  and  bated  voice  breathed  through  the  dark 

Roofed  pines  and  died  in  soughings  far  away. 
At  length  there  came  a  sound  of  passing  waves, 

Of  distant  waters  moaning  on  their  way ; 

Then  o'er  the  forest  broke  the  gloaming  day, 
And  soon  the  city's  spires  against  the  sky 

Rose  dark  and  tall,  and  in  the  misty  light 
He  saw  he  walked  a  lovely  garden.     High 

The  white-stemmed  poplars  rose,  and  left  and  right 
Were  fragrant  flowers,  green  vines ;  and  marble  shapes 

Cold  white  as  winter's  wing,  thereby  he  knew 
His  feet  were  once  more  with  the  dreamless  dead. 
New  sepultures,  with  clods  still  damp  and  red, 

Unmarked,  undecked,  by  fives,  by  tens,  and  scores, 
Opposed  each  marble  shape.     Cold,  dripping  dew, 

The  tears  that  mourning  darkness  kindly  pours 


130  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

From  starry  eyes  upon  the  smitten  earth, 
Gemmed  every  leaf,  as  though  she  knew 

Man's  special  woe  and  wept  with  deeper  grief. 
Weary  the  hermit  sat  him  down,  and  drew 

His  hermit  cloak  about  his  form  and  read 
The  names  upon  the  neai-est  stones.     Dim  through 

The  vine-foiled  windows  'twixt  the  myrtle  shade 
And  wide  magnolia-boughs,  the  river's  glint 

Rose  to  his  sight.     A  drawing  back,  a  dread 
To  face  his  fellows,  e'en  to  the  point 

Of  wavering  faith,  opposed  his  promise  made. 

The  mist-dispelling  sun  now  waking,  drew 

His  chariot's  golden  wheel  above  the  flood 
And  scattered  amber  light,  that  on  the  dew 

Wrought  rainbow  beauty  through  the  waking  wood, 
Where  glory  called  to  glory.     Solemn  sounds 

Of  distant  bells  disturbed  the  hermit's  ears 
And  woke  from  out  his  memory's  still  profounds 

Deep  thoughts  that  sweetened  hope  in  other  years. 
He  rose  and  moved  with  quick,  impatient  pace 
Along  the  bordered  path,  fixing  his  gaze 

Upon  the  distant  tower  whence  came  those  peals 
That  pleased  and  gloomed  his  soul  at  once.     Kot  wide 

He  wandered  from  his  seat,  with  fears  and  ills 
Of  soul  forgotten,  when  he  saw  beside 

The  path,  deep  in  the  drooping  willow's  shade, 
And  hidden  half  by  lowly  daffodils 

And  autumn-penciled  grass,  a  grave  new  made, 


RUPEKT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  131 

O'er  which  but  once  had  brooded  sable  night : 

A  broken  lily  at  its  head,  a  spray 
Of  cypress  by  its  side,  spoke  of  the  blight 

That  closed  untimely  some  young  spirit's  day. 
A  sudden  pallor  swept  the  hermit's  face, 

And  consternation  checked  his  cheerful  mien — 
What  if  the  rude  white  cross  that  marked  the  place 

Fulfilled  his  fears  with  tale  of  Madeline  ? 

Soon  had  his  eyes  the  doubtful  story  read ; 

But  now  the  monkish  sexton,  like  a  ghost, 
Glided  from  out  the  shade  with  silent  tread 

And  stood  within  the  hermit's  sight.     As  lost 
To  reason,  each  gazed  on  the  other's  face, 

Moveless  and  speechless  for  a  time.     At  last 
The  hermit  spake,  full  anxious  to  displace 

The  burden  from  his  mind :  "  O  ancient  man, 
I  come  from  far  with  tidings  for  a  maid 

Of  one  whose  life  is  fled ;  but  fate  outran, 
I  deem,  my  steps.     Fear  tells  me  here  is  laid 

That  Madeline  whom  all  the  city  blessed ; 
If  so  it  prove,  thou  need'st  not  know  the  rest." 

"  I  wist  not  if  she  live  this  morn,  yet  know 
She  lies  not  here,  nor  had  been  laid,  at  eve, 

In  any  grave ;  for  with  the  dying  glow 
Of  yester  sun,  word  came  that  she  did  live, 

And  if  her  strength  endured  till  dawn  again, 

She  would  survive ;  but  yon  loud  death-bell's  tones, 

That  woke  me  from  disturbed  sleep,  sustain 


132          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC 

The  doubt  I  held,  for  scarce  its  lips  with  moans 
So  deep  had  knolled  another's  journey  hence." 

"It  fits  me  not,  O  sire,"  the  hermit  cried, 

"  To  walk  through  peopled  streets  again,  and  since 
It  more  than  seems  she  liveth  not,  should  pride 

Of  literal  faith  impel  me  to  attaint 
A  vow  so  long  observed  ?     Take  this,"  and  forth 

He  drew  the  student's  ring,  "  take  this ;  acquaint 
The  maid,  if  still  in  life,  of  this  my  tale. 

The  place  is  thrice  three  leagues  to  east,  hy  north ; 
A  ragged  hill  that  stands  above  the  vale 

Where  westward  turns  the  tide  of  dark  Yazoo; 
A  hermit's  cot  beside  a  runlet's  wave ; 

A  lonely  pine,  piercing  th'  eternal  blue, 
That  weeps  above  her  lover's  unfilled  grave, 

"Will  hold  for  many  a  mile  the  traveler's  view." 

This  said,  the  hermit  slowly  turned  and  strode 
With  steady  pace  adown  the  silent  wood. 


GANTO  EIGHTH. 


i. 

t  I  AIL  I  living  Christ,  whoso  soul  hath  borne  the  weight 
|  *•     The  mountain  weight,  of  all  our  human  guilt  ; 
Whose  voice  was  poured  through  dark-leaved  Olivet 

In  one  wild  prayer  for  strength  to  die  ;  who  spilt 
Thy  princely  blood — rblood  without  taint  of  guilt — 

Long  lineaged  blood  and  older  than  the  sun, 
Or  any  star,  or  angel  pulse  that  hilt 

Of  wrathful  sword  had  warmed  ere  was  begun 

O 

That  crystal  wonder  eon-told  to  wide  renown. 

First  bloom  of  past  eternity !  thy  love 

Still  fruits  and  blossoms  in  the  vernal  glow 

Of  these  our  fateful  years.     The  forms  that  move 
In  legioncd  myriads,  shadow}7,  slow, 

Into  the  death-marged  realms  of  silence,  go 

Heeded  of  love  alive  forevermore. 

While  hanging  in  the  shades  of  that  last  woe 

Wrought  in  Golgotha's  place,  thy  soul's  eye  bore, 

Clear  imaged,  all — from,  face  and  heart  to  burning  core. 

Eisen,  alive !  all  hail !  mild  as  the  light 

Of  the  young  day  that  treads  o'er  violets, 
Earliest  blown  of  forms  that  earth  bedight ; 

(133) 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Yet  awful  as  the  thunder-flame  that  jets 
From  heaven's  storm-parted  lips  when  wrath  begets 

A  judgment  speech !  I  clothe  me  in  that  first, 
Lifted  from  winter  death,  like  violets, 

But  from  that  last,  when  like  a  sword  it  thirst, 
Hide  me,  gray  cross — hide  me  from  that  last  lightning; 
burst ! 

Loud  speaks  a  voice  whose  sacred  accents  say, 

Or  seem :  "  0  lowly  taught,  thou  canst  not  see 
What  wonders  crowd  thy  path,  by  night,  by  day ; 

How  near  unnumbered  hosts  encompass  thee, 
"What  throbbing  chords  thou  daily  treadest  on 

That  wake  in  discord  or  in  harmony ; 
Thy  searching  sight  meets  here  its  horizon, 

But  yon  blue  heights  thy  newborn   thoughts   shall 

tread, 
"With  suns  for  stepping-stones,  till  glory  crown  thy  head ! " 

II. 
The  day's  red  orb  dropped  thi'ough  the  quivering  haze 

That  wrapped  the  marge  of  Yazoo's  cypress  glades, 
While  long  slant  splendors  wrought  their  golden  maze 

From  mount  to  stream,  and  bridged  the  abyss  of  shades 
Adown  which  fell  the  white-robed  thistle  mote, 

Blown  from  the  copses  of  the  hills.     Echo 
Woke  all  her  genii  from  their  caves  and  caught 

The  rising  harmonies,  and  far  below 
And  high  above  the  listening  crags,  each  fraught 

With  elfin  changes,  threw  them  note  by  note. 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  135 

With  crown  of  sweat  about  his  brow,  and  feet 

Grown  sore  and  weary  in  the  day-long  toil, 
Into  his  wild  the  hermit  made  retreat ; 

Slowly  he  climbed  the  shadowy  slope,  and,  while 
In  one  wide  curtain  from  the  orbless  sky 

The  silver  twilight  hung,  passed  o'er  the  stile 
And  to  his  cot. 

Is  knowledge  what  we  deem, 
Or  what  our  skeptic  souls  would  give  it  name  ? 

Is  there  no  over-soul  to  tell  us  when  we  dream, 
If  dream  we  true  or  false?     There  bides  to  claim 

Our  feal  to  law,  and  smites  if  heeded  not, 
Conscience,  so  called  for  lack  of  better  word ; 

But  consciousness  is  ampler,  unbegot, 
Begetting  every  child  of  sense  and  thought ; 

May  not  it,  then,  some  time,  somehow,  have  heard 
Unlawful  things,  laying  a  feeble  ear 

Against  the  walls  of  God's  great  secret  house  ? 
One  law  is  regnant,  binding  far  and  near 

The  parts  of  this  wide  whole,  the  universe, 
Into  a  kinship  of  desires  that  rouse 

A  universal  thought,  and  so  its  course 
Must  sometimes  glow  with  unspent  thoughts  of  God 

While  through  the  lowliest  heart  it  burns. 

A  calm 
Foreboding  of  delight,  while  yet  he  trod 

The  pillared  woods,  grew  in  the  hermit's  mind ; 
The  eager  air  seemed  laden  with  the  balm 

And  spices  of  a  rifled  tomb,  and,  swift  and  kind, 


136  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Disparted  souls  seemed  moving  toward  their  rest. 

A  pulse  of  angel  pinions  rustling  nigh, 
Of  angel  breathings  low,  his  soul  confessed 

As  to  the  cot  he  passed ;  yet  mortal  eye, 
Since  at  the  lonely  tomb  of  Bethany 

The  Son  of  Mary  stood,  was  never  smote 
With  wonder  like  the  hermit's  owned.     Lo !  there 

The  death  couch  stood,  but  all  unwrought 
The  tale  it  lately  told.     Smoothed  down  with  care, 

The  rustic  robes  were  o'er  the  grass  mat  spread ; 
The  water  cruise  stood  emptied  of  its  draught ; 

The  chair  on  which  the  garments  of  the  dead 
At  eve  before  had  lain  now  owned  to  naught 

Save  the  torn  scarf  that  girt  his  loins  at  death. 
A  foot-print  on  the  wind-dashed  fallow  pressed, 

And  followed  in  the  sand  and  sumac  heath 
That  balked  the  runlet's  course,  told  how  his  guest, 

Reviving,  passed  into  the  waste  again  ; 
And  so  the  hermit  moved  him  to  and  fro 

Between  the  cot  and  unfilled  grave,  still  fain 
To  find  a  clew  to  something  less  than  marvel's  awe. 

Meantime  into  a  sylvan  space,  a  lawn 

Of  nature  planned,  above  which  burned  the  flame 
Of  autumn  leaves,  at  point  five  leagues  removed 

From  the  smit  city,  slowly  moving,  came 
The  low  wheels  of  a  diligence.     The  hands 

That  reined  the  lagging  jades  trembled  with  age, 
A  gray-haired  Ethiop's — prince  of  mangrove  lands 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  137 

On  the  dark  coast ;  proved  in  long  bondage, 
Now  free,  but  held  by  stronger  bond  as  hers 

Who  sate,  pale-faced  and  weary,  in  the  coach : 
In  like  he  served  through  all  her  maiden  years 

The  mother  till  a  bride,  then  bound,  in  such 
Till  death  ;  therefrom  the  daughter,  faithful  still. 
Now  halting,  from  the  clear  wave  of  a  rill 

He  raised  a  full  cup  to  the  pale  lips'  touch 
And  stood,  with  head  made  bare,  waiting  his  lady's  will. 

Drink,  pale-lipped  Madeline,  the  heaven-pledged  cup! 

God  brewed  it  in  the  summer  cloud  and  stored 
Deep  in  the  summer  caves,  whence  unto  hope 

A  full  libation  naiads'  hands  have  poured 
From  lily  urns  its  coolness  forth ;  no  dregs 

Are  in  its  depths,  for  lo !  is  passed  for  aye 
Thy  bitter  cup.     No  more  thy  spirit  begs 

In  vain  a  joyous  boon.  Drink  to  the  day 
Of  happy  love — the  day  that  was — that  is! 
Two  wonders  in  the  earth  beneath  are  seen, 

Transcending  all — a  soul  that  keeps  its  bliss 
Through  stainless  faith  and  one  that  finds  again 

Its  bliss  through  purifying  love.     Drink  deep, 
O  stainless  maid ;  drink  to  the  purified, 

The  chastened  one,  whose  shining  feet  now  keep 
Glad  movement,  hasting  swiftly  to  thy  side  ; 

He  lives  whose  soul  is  brother  unto  thine ! 
The  fallen  leaves  betray  his  coming  steps ; 

The  leaves  above,  with  accents  half  divine, 
Repeat  his  name.     "  He  lives ;  he  comes ;  he  leaps," 


138  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

They  cry.     Eeceive  thine  exile  into  rest. 
A  sudden  start ;  a  maiden's  fitful  cry  ; 

Eyes  turned  to  eyes,  and  pale  lips  unto  pale  lips  pressed. 
Too  long  the  care,  too  great  the  ecstasy 
Of  hope  revived — swoon,  gentle  heart,  not  die ! 

'Tis  well,  'tis  well ;  thyself  shalt  wake  to  rest ! 

Like  the  slow  tide  of  tropic  streams  deep  steeped 

In  the  warm  odors  of  the  falling  molds 
Of  thousand  drooping  boughs,  eve  onward  crept, 

Balm  sweetened,  toward  the  west.     The  primrose  folds- 
Its  waxen  leaves  to  ope  again  when  dies 

The  regal  sun  in  twilight's  holy  shade. 
So  oped  the  folded  lids  of  love-blessed  eyes 

That  might  not  drink  its  brightness  wonder  rayed. 

"  Back  from  the  dead,"  the  white  lips  breathed,  when  first 

They  caught  the  vital  air,  "  back  from  the  dead 
Thou  art  returned  to  me.     What  power  has  burst 

Thy  double  bond,  for  free  my  soul  doth  read 
Thou  art — alive  and  free,  thrice  free  ?  "     They  spake 

Glad-voiced,when  he,  the  youth,  speechless  till  then, 
Replied :  "  Yea,  back  from  more  than  dead ;  awake 

To  more  than  life — to  light,  to  liberty 
Of  those  high  thoughts  we  early  proved ;  made  such 

Through  knowledge  of  that  Christ  by  whom  I  stand, 
And  shall  through  future  days,  till  magic  touch 

Of  the  arch-seraphim  Ithuriel's  wand 
Shall  lift  me  to  the  height  of  his  tall  form. 


RUPERT  WISE!  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  139 

Thou  hast  done  well  that  thou  didst  come.     Our  feet 
Are  not  misled,  I  deem,  if  faith  conform 

To  His  fair  will  who  did  our  faith  beget, 
And  yet  so  late  I  read  that  will ;  the  peace 

Therefrom  so  new,  perchance  I  do  construe 
Somewhat  above  that  it  may  bind  or  please ; 

Howbeit,  hence  it  led  me  on,  and  true 
I  find  my  hope  that  thou  art  still  in  life, 

And  that  the  old-time  warmth  abides  within 
The  twilight  circle  of  thine  eyes.     Joy  rife, 

A  thousand  passion  fires  within  me  burn 
And  visions  of  the  sunny  years  to  be ; 

But  summer  waits  till  winter's  soul  expires, 
So  to  a  tale  of  wand'rings  list  and  learn 

Whence  rose  my  sin-scathed  soul  to  light  and  lease 
Of  nobler  walk. 

"  How  long,  or  by  what  chance 
I  wandered  in  the  hoary  wild,  ere  ease 

Of  pain,  or  thought's  clear  vision  broke  the  trance 
Of  mind,  I  may  not  say ;  all  misty  is 

From  day  thy  tender  eyes  looked  on  me  ill 
Till  yester  dawn.     'Twas  then  I  knew  surprise, 

And  fear  o'ertook  my  soul.     I  woke  with  still 
A  thought  that  thou  wert  nigh  ;  but  other  eyes 

Regarded  me :  a  hermit  to  his  cot 
Had  borne  me,  and  with  brother's  tenderness 

Had  watched  my  malady,  that  seemed  begot 
Of  death,  and  death  seemed  close  and  hard  to  press 

The  bated  life,  until  he  deemed  I  died 


140          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

And  laid  his  finger  tips  upon  my  lids 

In  office  kind.     Deep  peace  was  multiplied 
That  hour  within ;  for  all  that  morn,  as  hides 

The  feathered  waif  when  storms  are  loud,  my  soul 
Had  hid  in  prayer ;  and  voices  of  the  days 

We  love,  blown  from  the  aspen-shaded  knoll 
Held  by  the  brown-roofed  chapel,  where  to  praise 

And  worship  oft  our  childish  feet  were  led, 
Came  memory  sweet  upon  my  ear.     I  knew 

I  lived,  or  deemed  it  so,  yet  for  the  dead 
Was  marked,  and  pulse  and  sentient  life  withdrew 

And  hid  them  in  the  inner  heart. 

"  Slow  paced, 
The  hermit  passed  into  the  day,  then  reigned 

A  tomb-like  silence ;  thence  no  more  I  traced 
The  course  of  sense  :  a  vision's  light  obtained 

Assent  and  clothed,  like  woven  flame,  my  brain. 
Dreams  have  I  known,  in  sleep,  that  led  afar 

Through  changes  of  the  hidden  world  and  pain 
Or  joy  sustained,  but  never  such  fair  star 

Of  trance  or  fancy  led  my  sight.     To  rise 
I  seemed,  leaving  my  grosser  part  still  prone 

Upon  the  hermit's  couch,  yet  everywise 
Perfect  the  part  that  stood  and  passed  alone 
Into  a  coast-land  fringed  with  orange-groves, 
And  goodly  fair  to  look  upon  ;  a  glow 
Of  ebbing  day,  like  that  which  now  expires, 
Lent  holy  silence  to  the  hour.     3Iy  steps 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  141 

Bent  slowly  downward  to  the  sea  that  lapped 

"With  summer  drowsiness  the  pebbly  beach. 

I  strained  my  eyes  and  heart  to  read  a  sign, 

A  token  of  the  over-soul  that  walks 

Through  summer  seas  or  breathes  imperial  strength 

Eeclining  midst  the  mountain  shades.     One  sail 

Whose  pennant  pointed  toward  the  Isthmic  coast, 

Through  dark  Campcachy's  darker  waste,  was  all 

The  blue  veil's  misty  folds  allowed  my  sight ; 

Glowed  not  the  light  of  eld  that  floated  down 

The  zodiacal  paths  into  my  soul, 

When  in  my  own  thy  hand  was  pressed,  now  cold, 

I  thought,  beneath  the  upland's  thymy  sod. 

Thereat  I  hated  life  and  feared  the  death 

I  could  not  die.     Through  unfrequented  ways 

I  turned  and  climbed  a  wooded  steep,  hard  by 

A  soft-voiced  stream  that  dropped,  full-waved  and  clear, 

Into  the  deep  Nirvana  of  the  bay. 

Great  oaks,  moss-grown  and  century  gnarled,  rose  high, 

And  clasped  in  rugged  arms,  as  lovers  might 

Their  circlet-plighted  maids,  magnolia-trees, 

Decked  in  the  white  wealth  of  their  bridal  pride. 

I  had  not  thought  since  time  began  that  foot, 

Save  mine,  had  pressed  that  virgin  mold ;  an  air 

Of  the  divine  was  there ;  a  censer  smell 

Of  woodland  sacrifice  and  worship  filled 

The  balmy  lapses  of  the  tangled  shade ; 

In  the  wood's  deep  heart,  half  hid  by  drooping  vines 

Pendant  from  one  dark-fronded  ash  that  stood 


142          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

Taller  than  all  his  kind,  I  came  upon 

A  lonely  mound  and  sate  me  down  in  thought. 

"  Darkness  was  near  full  and  still  descending  night 

Her  pall  spread  over  heaven,  till,  like  a  soul 

Let  loose  from  clay,  the  moon  leaped  on  the  sea 

And  poured  its  light  through  all  the  woven  gloom 

Of  vines  and  odorous  boughs  that  shut  me  in. 

Clothed  in  the  moonlight's  splendor,  one  came  forth 

From  out  the  vine-screened  depths,  and,  standing  near, 

Made  low  obeisance  and  began  to  speak  : 

'  Fair  greetings,  son  !  long  have  I  waited  here 

The  coming  of  thy  steps.'     With  this  I  looked 

More  closely  on  his  form.     His  flowing  hair, 

White  as  the  frost  on  Sitkan  hills,  fell  full 

Upon  his  shoulders  bare,  athwart  which  hung 

A  silken  badge,  with  tinsel  emblems  set. 

His  swarthy  face  was  crossed  by  many  a  line 

That  age,  not  care,  had  wrought. 

"After  a  pause, 

And  stretching  forth  his  hand,  he  thus  went  on : 
1  My  words  are  dark ;  but  know  I  am  the  last 
Of  a  long  line  of  priestly  men  who  stood 
Within  the  shrines  of  that  Atlantic  Isle 
Long  perished,  but  renowned  in  all  the  earth. 
All  wisdom  of  all  times,  Indie,  Egyptic, 
Iranic  and  the  roots  of  the  fair  tree 
Etruscan  grown,  concentered  in  that  school 
Of  wisest  fellowship,  and  sense  of  things 


RUPERT  WISE:   A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  143 

That,  like  the  leaf,  lie  folded  in  the  years 

Of  dark  futurity.     At  night — the  last 

Of  all  her  history,  wherein  to  rise  no  more 

The  fair  isle  sank  into  the  hungry  seas — 

A  remnant  of  the  holy  house  embarked 

And,  heaven  led,  pitched  on  these  shores  and  built 

Great  mounds  and  many  a  sinuous  temple  wall, 

In  ruins  long — I,  the  latest  and  alone, 

Have  sat  me  here  a  hundred  circling  years, 

Poring  the  rolls  of  Ayar-manco-topa, 

Sage  of  mighty  soul.     Therein  'tis  writ 

That  he  who  keeps  the  holy  line  alone 

Shall  bide  him  in  this  vine-embowered  place 

And  forth  conduct  whoever  sits  him  first 

Upon  this  grassy  bosk — if  so  he  will — 

Unto  an  isle  far  in  the  summer  sea, 

Where  leaps  to  kiss  of  living  light  the  spray 

Of  the  clear  Fount  of  Youth,  whereof  who  drinks 

Forgets  his  present  pain  and  evermore 

Shall  know  his  early  dreams,  and  strength 

Wherewith  to  compass  hope.    And  thou  art  first. 

"  Instant,"!  cried,  with  wildness  in  my  voice 

'  Lead  forth,  O  holy  man,  to  that  fair  isle ! 

Surely  the  gods  are  wise  and  kind,  and  fate 

Forgets  its  evil  end !    I  follow  thee 

To  that  new  hope,  as  one  of  blindness  smit 

Follows  the  guiding  hand  through  dangerous  paths.' 

Few  steps  brought  to  the  stream's  green  banks  our  feet ; 


144  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

And  there,  fast  moored,  beneath  a  rock  that  dripped 
With  tinkling  water  drops,  a  white-winged  boat, 
Made  ready  for  the  wave.     Quickly  embarked, 
The  moorings  loosed,  we  pointed  toward  the  deep. 
The  land-breeze  fed  the  trembling  sails,  and  soon 
The  keel  leaped  to  the  white  arms  of  the  surf, 
And  sang  a  listless  song  of  oce  soft  note. 
The  breeze  rose  to  a  gale — a  gale  from  skies 
Of  cloudless  blue,  o'erflecked  with  isles  of  fire. 
Behind  the  rattling  sails  and  groaning  spars 
The  prophet  sate  to  helm  the  bark  and  sang, 
Or  chanted  loud,  a  hymn  of  ancient  lore. 
All  wisdom  of  all  times  pulsed  through  its  words, 
And  hope  of  future  days — not  earth's,  I  ween. 
Much  more  he  sang,  but  this  mine  ears  retained  : 

SONG. 

1  " '  Man  clings  to  time !  the  ebbing  tide  sweeps  out, 

Leaving  a  beach  of  trodden  sands  behind, 
Fringed  with  a  range  of  hoary  shades  that  flout 

Funereal  banners  in  the  sobbing  wind  ; 
And  ghostly  shapes  walk  in  the  dim  inane, 

Dumb  with  the  draught  of  Lethe's  slumb'rous  wave, 
Or  lade  the  denser  gloom  with  rueful  plain, 

"While  dull  Oblivion  smiles  to  hear  them  rave. 

2  " '  Beyond  that  strip  of  coast-line  trodden  bare, 

Beyond  the  long  gray  swell  of  tossing  gloom, 
Cinctured  with  fading  sunlight  here  and  there, 
Few  know  the  secrets  of  that  realm  of  doom ; 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  145 

Few  souls  have  pierced  beyond  its  middle  wild, 
Still  fewer  heard  the  pulsing  ocean  beat 

In  languid  measures  on  the  rocks  up-piled, 
Its  other  shore,  bereft  of  light  and  heat. 

3  "  '  Some,  passing  thence,  returned  with  thrilling  tale 

Of  what  opposed  their  sight  the  journey  on, 
Of  marble  wonders  fallen  low,  with  trail 

Of  ruin  everywhere ;  of  beauty  gone 
From  palaces  and  courts  of  mighty  kings. 

Where  fell  the  splendor  of  a  thousand  years 
Now  falls  the  night  of  waste,  and  ivy  clings 

To  shrines  once  boasting  royal  worshipers. 

4  "  '  We  cling  to  life !  the  ebbing  tide  sweeps  out ; 

A  leaden  sky  infolds  the  foaming  deep ; 
Faint  Occidental  flushes  dance  about 

The  far  horizon,  where  the  billows  keep 
Their  wavering  line  opposed  against  its  blue ; 

A  zodiacal  gloam  sifts  through  the  haze 
And  timeward  falls,  with  weird  and  wasted  hue ; 

Dies  on  the  strand  or  on  the  distant  maze. 

5  " '  These  be  the  tokens  of  a  sunken  sun 

And  of  the  fading  day,  whose  orbed  rays, 
Paling  from  narrower  skies,  have  but  begun 

To  weave  the  woofed  splendors  of  the  days 
Immortal  named.     Yet  still  we  cling  to  life, 

And  cast  the  anchor,  moved  by  doubt's  alarm 
To  hear  the  ocean  break  in  fitful  strife 

Or  see  the  night-racks  fly  before  the  storm ! 
10 


146          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

6  " l  Dank  are  the  landward  shades  and  wet  with  dew 

The  feathery  fronds,  outlined  against  the  mist, 
Whose  leaden  zone  gains  surely  on  the  view. 

Launch  forth  into  the  deep,  though  fears  resist! 
The  Happy  Isles  and  Lotus  Coasts  are  hid 

Far  in  the  watery  wastes.     Launch  forth  to  peace ! 
The  sun-dyed  clouds  foretype  thy  joy  and  bid 

As  Argonauts  to  seek  the  Golden  Fleece ! ' 

"The  bark  swept  on  before  the  sleepless  wind 
,    And  slipped,  at  morn,  into  a  waste  .of  reefs 
Green  with  the  coral  palm  and  ivies  twined 

About  the  tropic  beach ;  tall  reeds  and  sheafs 
Of  lush  green  grass  whispered  above  the  sea. 

Fair-plumaged  birds  battled  with  burnished  wings 
The  warm-breathed  gale,  and  all  things  glad  and  free 

Told  of  a  summer  in  whose  fullness  springs 
All  rapture  of  delight  that,  passing  into  song, 

To  thralldom  charms  the  list'ning  soul.     The  day 
Had  faded  half  and,  falling  deep  among 

The  lessening  banks,  the  winds  had  died  away ; 
But  in  a  current  of  the  sea  the  boat 

Was  drifting  toward  a  mist-veiled  coast  with  hue 
Of  purpling  light  beyond.     As  bubbles  float 

Upon  the  stream,  we  floated  on  and  drew 

Our  course  hard  on  a  rocky  cove  and  threw 
The  anchor  by  the  shore.     The  sinking  sun 

Stretched  forth  his  beamy  hands  and  held  the  mist 
High  o'er  the  Happy  Isle,  when  brightly  shone 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  147 

Its  nameless  beauty  on  our  sight.     I  kissed 
The  mossy  rocks  and  left  my  feeble  lips 

Buried  a  moment  in  the  cooling  dew, 

When  lo  !  a  sound  of  gurgling  water  drew 
My  fancy  toward  the  inner  isle.     My  heai't 

Beat  like  a  hunted  stag's ;  hope  burned  anew 
In  every  breath :  waters  of  youth  that  part 

The  soul  from  all  its  evil  fears  flowed  near. 
Led  by  the  priest,  soon  to  the  welling  wave 

I  came  and  stood,  feasting  desire.     Light  clear, 
And  deep  as  heaven's  blue  well,  it  seemed  and  gave 

Eeflected  wonders  from  its  depths.     I  stooped 
To  drink,  but  ere  my  lips  had  touched  the  wave 

It  shrank  and  died,  and  moistless  sand  instead 
Filled  the  deep  cave.     I  rose,  and  all  the  isle 

Was  changed  into  a  waste  of  sand  that  spread 
From  shore  to  shore  ;  nor  sign  of  life  the  while, 

Nor  sound  of  living  thing,  save  the  dark  priest, 

And  he,  a  shadow  grown,  faded  to  mist 
And  passed,  like  all  my  hopes,  away.    A  voice 

Came  with  the  last  faint  trace  of  shade  that  told 
The  outline  of  his  form  :  '  Hollow  the  noise 

Of  human  pride  and  wisdom  late  or  old ; 
Death  is  the  tree  and  death  must  be  the  fruit.' 

"  Prone  to  the  earth  I  fell  and  laid  in  dust 
The  lips  deceived  and  cried,  'Above  the  brute 

No  whit  is  man;  nobler  in  form,  with  trust 

In  higher  things,  but  both  go  downward  to  the  earth.' 


148  RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE. 

The  heart  within  me  died,  and  seemed  to  blend 

With  parent  clay,  resolved  to  primal  birth; 
But  since,  in  death  or  kind  relief,  must  end 

Our  bitterest  woe,  I  waited,  hoping  naught, 
When  one  with  burning  finger  smote  my  cheek ; 

Whereat  I  rose,  and  lo!  a  change  was  wrought 
In  all  the  isle,  that  seemed  no  isle,  nor  bleak 

And  waste,  but  a  most  sacred  land  and  strewed, 
Toward  every  wind  of  heaven,  with  wonders  wide ; 

Its  vales  and  terraced  hills,  of  old,  to  tread 
And  the  swift  toil  of  thousands  woke  with  pride 

Of  fruitful  years ;  but  *now  no  mortal  fares, 
Or  shall  fare,  through  forever.     The  wild  palm 

In  leagues  of  vacancy  hails  the  soft  airs 
That  breathe  a  scent  of  terebinth  and  balm 

Over  the  dust  of  many  a  ruined  pile 
That  swells  from  the  smooth  stretch  of  goodly  plains, 

Or  keeps  the  stately  shape  and  dim  profile 
Of  ancient  grandeur,  slowly  wrought  in  reigns 

Of  peaceful  kings.     There  was  nor  voice  nor  sound 
What  time  I  stood  with  fate  contending  there, 

But  pain  was  grown  to  stark  despair  and  bound 
With  rueless  chains. 

"  Lo !  where  with  aimless  stare 

I  gazed,  a  mount  sloped  upward  toward  the  skies 
Against  which  stood  a  cross,  and  round  it  played 

A  mystic  light,  fanned  to  a  glow  by  sighs 
That  angels  breathed — sighs  of  desire,  not  made 

Of  grief. 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  149 

"  Down  from  the  mount  a  Form  moved  slow, 
Until  it  stood  and  looked  upon  my  face ; 

Benignly  calm  it  gazed  and  spake  in  low 
And  measured  tones :  'Arise,  thou  fallen  soul ;  grace 

Bids  thee  rise.     Thy  will  has  died,  but  lives;  I 
Who  speak,  the  living  Christ,  shall  make  thee  stand. 

I  am  thy  strength  unto  eternity.' 

"  I  seemed  to  quaff  a  cup  held  in  a  hand 

To  me  invisible  :  a  cup  I  knew — 
I  could  but  know  the  truth — that  kings  and  seers 

And  mighty  ones  of  old  had  quaffed.     The  dew 
Distilled  in  Paradise  and  sweetened  airs 

Blown  from  its  hills  across  the  lily  marge 
Of  life's  clear  wave  had  not  more  grateful  proved 

To  my  faint  soul.     What  owned  I  then  ?    Deep,  large, 
And  calm  as  ether's  sea,  heaven's  fullness  moved 

Upon  my  sense,  and  moved  with  every  draught. 
O  holy  cup  !  O  very  grail !  I  drank 

And,  drinking,  felt  within  me  power  and  craft 
Of  evil  motions  die.     Not  then  a  blank, 

As  I  had  prayed  a  time  before,  my  life 
Of  darker  thoughts  and  appetite,  but  force 

And  argument  sustaining  trust :  a  strife 
With  doubt,  and  ever  so  to  be. 

"  What  course 
The  spirit's  currents  ran  was  changed.     The  note 

Discordant  in  our  harmony  of  love 
Was  drowned  in  faith's  full-measured  song.     I  wote 


150          RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  BOXAXCE. 

That  man  is  spirit  more  than  flesh :  I  strove, 
Therefore,  no  more,  and  mind  o'er  flesh  was  staid. 

I  knew  the  kingly  words  of  Him  whose  hands, 
Once  pierced,  sustained  the  universe.     He  laid 

On  me  (O  awful  joy !)  those  kingly  hands, 
And  all  His  soul  passed  into  mine.     I  made 

Thereat  to  rise,  spurning  the  desert's  sands, 
But  woke  that  moment  in  the  hermit's  cot ; 

And  all  is  well!    Ah !  do  we  sit  this  hour 
In  Paradise?  and  is  thy  face  unwrought 

Of  earthly  hue,  and  angel's  made,  that  power 
Of  beauty  soul-consuming  it  reveals  ? 

Afar  in  joyless  paths  I  vainly  sought 
To  find  what  this  good  hour  my  bosom  fills : 

I  wake  from  trance  of  morbid  fear  to  thought 
Of  those  fair  days  wherein  our  wedded  souls 

Shall  walk  to  triumph  of  their  early  dream, 

And  lo !  our  token :  fades  the  twilight's  bolder  gleam, 
But  in  his  own  clear  light  the  Star  of  Evening  rolls  !  " 

I/ENVOI. 

The  fortnight  of  my  tale  is  done ;  I  seal 
This  Book  of  Life  and,  sealing,  steal 
Into  that  silence  whence  I  came.     He  cares 
"Who  smote  these  strings  vibrant  to  many  airs, 
He  cares  but  little  for  the  fleeting  praise 
That  lives  on  transient  lips.     He  sought  to  raise 
A  beacon  by  a  storm-swept  coast.     If  there 
Some  sin-tossed  soul  shall  see  and  fare 
To  hope  and  God,  he  is  repaid. 


RUPERT  WISE:  A  POETIC  ROMANCE.  151 

My  ears 

.Approve  a  sound  of  myriad  feet ;  the  years 
That  are  to  be  reverberate  with  song 
And  paean  shout  of  conquering  hosts  that  throng 
The  fields  of  strife  and,  thronging,  turn  the  tide 
Toward  victory's  perfect  day.     Faith,  Hope  abide, 
And  Love ;  and,  led  by  Him,  the  living  Form, 
I  send  this  arrow  at  the  Python  worm. 


THE  END. 


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